Richard Boyd Barrett: Demands Probe into Toxic Cherrywood Gorse Fires
Richard Boyd Barrett raised concerns about prolonged gorse fires in Cherrywood and their toxic impact on nearby residents, urging a full evaluation. He criticised inadequate air monitoring and inter-agency coordination and asked the Taoiseach to check with the NEC emergency unit for an assessment.
Gorse fires in Cherrywood
He described Cherrywood as a huge development and said gorse fires burned for several weeks. He warned that burnt gorse is very dangerous and said residents reported toxic pollutants entering homes and that a report showed significant negative health impacts.
Residents' complaints about the official response
Residents said there was no proper planning or coordination between state agencies, with responsibility passed between the HSE, the council and fire services. He said local monitoring was inadequate because stations were distant and not incident-specific, so they could not capture the local pollutant exposure.
Calls for emergency planning and agency coordination
He called for a proper emergency response plan, clear coordination between government agencies in assessing health risk, and improved readiness and capacity of local authorities for emergencies such as flooding or gorse fires. He asked the Taoiseach to confirm whether the NEC emergency unit has evaluated the incident and to report back.
Government acknowledgement and local authority action
The Taoiseach acknowledged coordination challenges and said a meeting was convened after the last storm to focus on joint working and command arrangements. He also praised local authority officials who worked during the storm and cited an example in Carlow where a local authority helped a housing estate.
Next steps and follow-up
The Taoiseach said he would check with the emergency unit in the NEC for an evaluation and would come back on the findings. He also indicated he was examining structural changes to improve clarity of roles and readiness across agencies.
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Taoiseach, in August of last year, I was out ill at the time, but Deputy Murphy raised on my behalf, for our area's behalf, the issue of fires, gorse fires in Cherrywood. Cherrywood, as you know, is a huge, the biggest residential development in the country, and they're toxic. I didn't realise, to be honest, the gorse is very dangerous when it's burnt, it's very, very toxic, and these fires went on basically for several weeks. The residents are saying that really there was no proper planning or coordination between different state agencies in terms of responding to this. The fires continued. People were passing the parcel between the HSE, the council, fire services, and so on, as to who was actually responsible. But meanwhile, these dangerous, toxic pollutants were going into people's homes, and that the monitoring of them was completely inadequate, because it wasn't incident-specific. The monitoring stations were far away, where they wouldn't essentially be able to capture the damage that was being done from the fires. Their report shows significant negative health impacts. And what they really want to know is that the government is going to take it seriously, that there's a proper emergency response plan, that there is coordination between different government agencies in assessing the health risk and, indeed, being able to respond to these emergencies. Deputy Boyd Barris, I think it's an important issue. It's a serious public health issue as well as a health and safety issue. And I will check with the emergency unit in the NEC to see, is there an evaluation of what happened? Have we a report outlining what is transferred? I do think we have a challenge with the coordination between agencies. I do think we have challenges with the readiness and capacity of local authorities in terms of emergencies, be it a flooding emergency or be it a course fire in this case. And I convened a meeting last week in respect of the last storm, again focusing in on that coordination piece and people working together to make sure there's someone in charge if something happens and it gets done. And I don't think we're at the optimal stage yet, if I'm honest, with you in relation to that. But I am pursuing it, and I am looking at this thing structurally as well to see what needs to be done to make sure that there are clear lines. And in fairness, a lot of people did a lot of good work during the last storm. I just want to say that too, a lot of local authority officials were out in the middle of the night helping families get through it. And in Carlow, for example, a local authority saved a day of a big housing estate there. So I'm going to put those positives and negatives. But it's that pulling together piece. And obviously the toxicity and the impact on public health is a very serious one. And I'll come back to you in terms of the evaluation of that.
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