Record number of uncontrolled wildfires in 2021

Jimmy Sweetman, Killarney Water Rescue Search and Recover, assessing the fire burning in Killarney National Park. The large fire in April accounted for almost half the damage caused nationally last year. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan/

More than 3,600 hectares of land were damaged by large wildfires and there was a record number of uncontrolled fires across the country last year.

New figures show a total of 50 large wildfires – each of which damaged at least 30 hectares of land – broke out last year resulting in the destruction of vegetation and wildlife across 3,609 hectares.

While the extent of the damage was less than half that recorded in 2013 when 10 wildfires burnt over 8,200 hectares of land, it was the highest number of large individual wildfires since records began.

A large fire that broke out in Killarney National Park in April accounted for almost half the damage caused nationally last year. Approximately 1,800 hectares were destroyed during the fire which lasted over three days.

Unlike other parts of Europe where the risk of wildfires is highest during the hottest summer months, 85% of the damage caused by wildfires in the Republic occurred in April last year.

The season for wildfires is believed to be linked to the practice of illegal agricultural burning, particularly of gorse and heather in upland areas.

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The latest figures, which are collated by the Department of Agriculture, show the vast majority of land impacted by wildfires in 2021 was upland heath, accounting for 94% of affected areas. Agricultural land represented only 2% of areas burned by wildfires in 2021 with forests accounting for less than 1%.

Following a large wildfire in the Wicklow Mountains at the end of last month which damaged over 300 hectares of the Wicklow National Park, the Minister of State for Heritage, Malcolm Noonan, said it was “critically important” that there be a crackdown on those starting illegal fires.

The Green Party TD, who rejected calls by the Irish Farmers’ Association earlier this year to extend the permitted burning period beyond the end of February by a month, called for increased patrols and aerial surveillance to tackle the problem.

While welcoming the robust condemnation of illegal fires by Mr Noonan, the Irish Wildlife Trust said a lot more needed to be done to break the annual cycle of destructive fires.

Minister @noonan_malcolm strongly condemns illegal fires and calls on farm organisations to do the samehttps://t.co/V1CAB9v684

— Irish Wildlife Trust (@Irishwildlife) April 1, 2022

The IWC pointed out that it had called for a range of emergency measures to be deployed following the fire which destroyed a large swathe of Killarney National Park last year including a prohibition of all burning of land regardless of the date and expediting management measures for Natura 2000 sites.

Other actions recommended by the IWC included the suspension of “eligibility” rules that penalise farmers for having scrub vegetation on their land. However, IWC spokesperson, Pádraic Fogarty, said no progress has been made in any area.

Mr Fogarty said Mr Noonan and his colleagues in the Department of Agriculture need to go much further than one-off annual condemnations which are quickly forgotten.

“We must have a sustained information and education programme which clearly communicates the damage fire does and the penalties for setting illegal fires,” said Mr Fogarty. “We must see greater penalties for those convicted and greater effort put into bringing prosecutions.” 

The IWC also called on farming organisations to strongly condemn illegal fires.

Mr Fogarty said equivocation and silence are “effectively a nod and a wink to those who feel impunity in destroying the countryside these organisations claim to defend".