Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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1194. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the position regarding any review being carried out by his Department into best practice for fire brigades and local authorities to manage wildfires with a view to minimising the impact of smoke on nearby residents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45742/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The provision of a fire service in its functional area, including the establishment and maintenance of a fire brigade, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. My Department supports the fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for equipment and priority infrastructural projects.

Considerable inter-agency efforts have been made to reduce the incidence of wildland fires, led by my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. That Department has led an inter-agency review which has helped enhance the mitigation of wildland/ gorse / forest fires.

Wildland fires can breakout accidentally in certain areas of our country during dry weather conditions. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine monitor conditions and issues colour-coded Fire Danger notices during periods when wildland fire risk is high. These fires, unfortunately, occur despite the co-ordinated efforts of the Fire Service, Coillte, National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) and local communities. Wildland fires in some instances may impact on ecologically sensitive areas causing significant damage to wildlife and natural habitats.

Following the initial attendance response to a report of a fire, all decisions on the mobilisation and deployment of further fire-fighting resources to fire incidents are vested in the Senior Fire Officer or Incident Commander present at the scene.

As well as the normal fire service response arrangements through which an incident commander can request additional fire service resources in light of the situation, support may be requested from neighbouring local authority fire services. Local authorities also engage directly with communities, when such fires occur.

Wildland fires are never easy to extinguish, given the difficult terrain in which they occur, the scale of the fire scene including the length of the fire fronts. Fighting wildland fire is intensive and hazardous work, requiring strong incident command, health and safety control measures and large numbers of fire-fighting staff, who may have to work for long periods, usually in very hot conditions. Fire Services aim to control the spread of fire, planning firebreaks to slow the development of fire fronts and fighting these fires defensively.

The priority of fire services in responding to all such incidents is the protection of life in local communities and among emergency responders. An important secondary objective is working with local communities to try to protect infrastructure, family homes, other property and ecologically sensitive areas, where it is safe to do so.

The response to wildfires is also supported by well-established arrangements whereby local authority fire services may, through the National Directorate for Fire & Emergency Management (NDFEM) in my Department and working with the Department of Defence, request the assistance of the Defence Forces. The local authority fire service also co-ordinate the input of other supporting organisations, which each have their own role/responsibilities, including,

• National Parks and Wildlife Service; and
• Coillte (State Forestry);

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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1195. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on the merits of providing grant funding for HEPA filters and similar filtering systems for residents that are frequently impacted by gorse fires and the related impact of smoke; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45743/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Advice offered to the general public on action to take in the event of exposure to emissions from wildfire is available on HSE Health Protection Surveillance centre at the following link:  www.hpsc.ie/a-z/environmentandhealth/airquality/wildfires/#d.en.23927  

Advice on home ventilation systems can be found on my Department's website at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/publications/home-ventilation/

The health impacts of smoke emissions from wildfires are the policy remit of the Health Service Executive.

Grant funding for HEPA filters and similar filtering systems for homeowners impacted by exposure to wildfire emission is not being considered by my Department at this time.