An ecologist is warning that Ireland’s laws on deliberately lit fires are three decades out of date and that current penalties are far too weak to act as a deterrent.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, Padraic Fogarty said that even when someone is caught and prosecuted, fines often amount to only a few hundred euros “which really is not a deterrent.” He also criticised the mixed messaging around “controlled burning,” arguing that burning land should not be acceptable at any time. “Fires should be unacceptable on land. We should not be burning land, full stop,” he said.
Fogarty linked the fire risk to deeper problems in land use. “This comes back to what I think is the fundamental problem with our unpreparedness: our land use is such that our ecosystems are completely degraded,” he said. That degradation is now colliding with a worsening climate, marked by longer 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.”
He pointed out that many wildfires are occurring on upland peatlands, which should be wet. “They should be our climate champions, because peat is so important for storing carbon. And they should also be really important biodiversity areas, except they’re in an extremely degraded state, which means they dry out very quickly and are very fire‑vulnerable.” The solution, he said, is to retain as much water as possible on the hills.
“We need to get our forests back into our hills. Our native forests, which used to cover the hills, are not flammable. We’ve seen that even in national parks recently, where flames just don’t spread into areas where we have intact natural forest.” While most native hill forests have been cleared, he argued this could be reversed.
He also criticised Ireland’s current commercial forestry model, which relies heavily on monocultures of a single conifer species. “That exacerbates the fire problem. This is a huge issue in France and Spain, where these vast monocultures are fuelling the flames. We need to be transitioning to different types of commercial forestry.”
Fogarty described the ecological damage from wildfires as catastrophic, noting that much of the harm has piled up in recent years on land already in “dire” condition. He said the government’s response to nature restoration regulations is crucial: the laws are in place and plans have been drawn up, but the upcoming budget must deliver concrete funding measures.
“If they don’t put money behind it, or don’t put sufficient money behind it, you won’t get the confidence of landowners or communities to get behind it and do the massive job of work that needs to be done.”