Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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153. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if a landowner who has cleaned their overgrown hedgeways can burn the old debris from the hedgeways; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21567/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Under the Waste Management (Prohibition of Waste Disposal by Burning) Regulations 2009, the burning of household, garden, commercial or industrial waste is not permitted.

An exemption is provided in the legislation to allow farmers, as a last resort and when no alternatives are available, to dispose of green waste generated by agricultural practices, by burning. The local authority must be notified in advance of any such activity.

The burning of this green waste is a matter of concern and leads to localised air pollution. More broadly, health problems associated with air pollution are widely known and acknowledged.