In the wake of multiple wildfires across the country, the Green Party has today said that Ireland is vastly under-resourced to deal with the risks posed to lives, livelihoods and land and that the government needs to significantly and rapidly “ramp up” investment in equipment and trained personnel.
‘While we applaud the heroics of the Air Corps, Defence Forces, NPWS, local Fire Services and other agencies, local landowners and communities in tackling wildfires, it is evident that we simply don’t have sufficient equipment or trained people to deal with multiple wildfires or with extreme weather events in Ireland. Such lack of forward planning is putting an undue risk on nature, on land, water and on property’ said Green Party Senator Malcolm Noonan.
Senator Noonan said that it is “unconscionable” that two of the largest landowners in the state; Coillte and the National Parks and Wildlife Service do not have a single helicopter or airplane between them but are reliant on contracted services or the Irish Air Corps.
He said that the aerial power at the state’s disposal was woefully inadequate and that the government needed to consider dual use of all ground and air equipment being purchased over the coming years under the Defence Forces capital investment programme announced last year.
“Since 2020, the NPWS has purchased a lot more land for nature, including two new national parks. Coillte too has been mandated to increase land under forestry, yet neither of them has a helicopter or airplane for surveillance or for fire-fighting.”
“Now that government has decided to give up on contributing to averting the worst impact of climate breakdown, the very least we should expect from them is to help communities deal with the chaos that it brings.”
‘As well as increased investment and specialised training in capacity within the Air Corps, Coast Guard and Defence Forces that would include dual use of equipment under the mandate of aid to civil authorities.”
Noonan noted “in-house aerial capability for NPWS and Coillte would be useful for surveillance and survey work to complement the use of drones across State land. There are commercially available services here and in the UK but when fires are burning across both islands at the same time, (as is the case this summer), cover to complement ground fire-fighting is greatly constrained.”
‘When these fires are brought under control, it is vital that government undertakes a comprehensive audit of existing capability, where the gaps are and to ramp up investment in embedding resilience across the island in the face of increased frequency of fire risk. Scenario planning should include the risk of all potential weather-related events and inform investment over time,” Senator Noonan said.