Ireland’s wildfire laws outdated says ecologist as Slievenamon fire reignites
An ecologist is warning that Ireland’s current legislation for dealing with fires that were deliberately started is 30 years out of date and the current deterrents are not sufficient.
Padraic Fogarty told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that “in the very unlikely event” that a person was caught and prosecuted, fines might be hundreds of euro “which really is not a deterrent.”
Fogarty also said that there were mixed messages about “controlled burning,” which should not be acceptable at any time. "Fires should be unacceptable on land. We should not be burning land full stop.
“This comes back to what I think is the fundamental problem with our unpreparedness, is that our land use is such that our ecosystems are completely degraded.
“It's meeting now a worsening climate situation where we get more and more prolonged dry spells. So we're going to see more and more of these fires and worse fires unless we start addressing our land use issues.”
Fogarty said hills,...
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