Environmental campaigners have called for the abandonment of agriculture policies which they say incentivise farmers to burn hillsides and boglands.
The call follows a spate of hill fires during the recent dry spell. Fire Services in counties Cork and Kerry have responded to 177 call-outs relating to gorse fires in the last ten weeks alone.
The upsurge in burning required the National Parks and Wildlife Service to initiate aerial patrols using both helicopters and drones.
The NPWS said significant damage has been caused by illegal to a number of designated Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Areas (SPA), including an estimated 6,000 acres in west Cork.
Under the Wildlife Act 1976 controlled burning is permitted on land from the 31st of August until the 1st March. However burning is prohibited on SACs and SPAs throughout the year. Farmers who burn outside of the designated period face prosecution, fines, possible imprisonment and deductions to their farm payments by the Department of Agriculture.
Farmers burn gorse, heather and scrub in an effort to generate grass growth, but also to meet requirements for area-based agricultural payments.
John Joe Mac Gearailt of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association says farmers have no option but to burn in order to avoid deductions to their basic payments.
"It's not the farmers that are at fault, it’s the policy led by the EU," said Mr Mac Gearailt
"We receive grant payments every year and as part of that support scheme we must show that the land we are claiming for is grazeable land. If we have an inspection and if there is too much scrub there, then we are penalised for it. So, the only way we can maintain our payments is to burn the heather and furze to allow for grass growth," he said.
The introduction of a new basic payment scheme under the new Common Agriculture Policy Strategic Plan (which came in to effect on 1 January and will run until 2027) sees a more tolerant approach to scrub in comparison to previous schemes, allowing farmers to claim on parcels of land comprising up to 50% scrub.
But environmental campaigners say the incentive to burn remains on any land parcel exceeding that threshold.
Dr Peadar Ó Fionnáin, who intends to contest next year’s local election in Kerry as a Green Party candidate, said an agriculture payment scheme which "encourages farmers to burn" is detrimental to the landscape, as well as the welfare of wildlife and people.
"I work as a GP here in Dingle and for the past few weeks the peninsula has been smothered in smoke. People have been coming in to me with respiratory complaints, people with asthma and other conditions are bothered by it.
"The hillsides are turning in to deserts from being burnt every year. You’re losing habitat and stopping any biodiversity and ecology generating.
"We're grazing our mountains down, we're burning them down. I don't think farmers want to be in that role but they are being put in that role by the way grants are dictating it. We need to quickly change the way we are incentivising farmers to manage their uplands."
Gardaí in An Daingean are investigating the source of a major fire on the mountain of Cruach Mhárthain where scores of acres were damaged.
Three units of the Kerry Fire Service fought the blaze in to the early hours of last Wednesday morning as the fire threatened a number of houses. The fire damaged ESB poles leading to the loss of power to a large telecommunications mast on the mountain.
The fire also damaged a number of farmers' fences as it burned its way across the mountain.
Ciarán Feirtéar, who farms a holding on the Dún Chaoin side of the mountain, said the fire encroached on his property and destroyed much of his boundary fencing.
"There’s five or six hundred timber stakes burned; 45 to 50 rolls of wire burned, staples and thorny wire gone. It’s a complete disaster.
"It’s going to cost me between €8,000 to €10,000 to replace all of this and that's just the materials. The labour that goes in to this is unbelievable. No tractor can come this far up the mountain, so I'll have to carry everything up on my back - five or six stakes at a time."
Between 1 January and 1 March, Cork Fire Service responded to 88 call-outs relating to gorse fires, while in Kerry the fire units tackled 89 gorse fires during that same period.
The NPWS said it currently has 32 cases ongoing in the courts relating to Section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976 which covers illegal burning, scrubbing and hedge-cutting.
Last week Minister of State Malcolm Noonan called on the public to report instances of illegal burning to gardaí or to the NPWS.
