Who is responsible for our 'scorched earth' policy?

Pádraig Hoare struggles to find a government department willing to take responsibility for a firm line on policing illegal burning of gorse

National Park and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Conservation Rangers, Sam Bayley, left and Danny O'Keeffe, Regional Manager of Killarney National Park, assessing the uplands of Killarney National Park after a large fire started as a controlled gorse fire in a designated area of special conservation. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan

It was the much-maligned-but-later-redeemed US president Harry Truman who coined the phrase "the buck stops here".

Nearly 70 years after the 33rd occupant of the White House insisted that responsibility for all decisions of his administration lay with him, it seems various government departments in Ireland have failed to take heed when it comes to the ever-escalating issue of gorse burning in rural areas.