1970. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide the number of prosecutions and fines under section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976, which makes it illegal to burn vegetation on uncultivated land between 1 March and 3 August, each year for the last ten years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62536/26]

Section 40 of the Wildlife Act is not restricted to illegal burning but also prohibits the cutting, grubbing or destruction of any vegetation growing on any land not then cultivated or in hedgerows or ditches during the period from March 1st to August 31st.

The number of prosecutions taken by the National Parks and Wildlife Service under Section 40 of the Wildlife Act, shown in Table 1 below, for the last ten years is 140.

Financial sanctions were applied in 112 of these prosecutions, noting that this includes both fines imposed by the court and charitable donations imposed by the court under the Probation Act.

It is important to note that the data provided in the table below categorises cases according to the year in which the alleged offence occurred rather than the date on which a prosecution case was submitted to the Chief States Solicitor’s Office or concluded by the courts.

Accordingly, several cases relating to offences that occurred from 2020 to date, remain before the courts and have not yet reached an outcome.

In relation to alleged offences under Section 40 occurring in 2026, given the statute of limitations for these cases, preparation and submission of cases are not yet complete therefore the prosecution data for 2026 is not yet available.

Table 1: Number of Section 40 Prosecution Cases taken by the National Parks and Wildlife Service since 2016 and Number of Cases with Financial Sanctions applied.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) will continue to monitor and investigate incidents of illegal burning and the destruction of uncultivated vegetation and, where appropriate, will pursue prosecutions. Any suspected incidents should be reported to the NPWS (contact details are available at www.npws.ie) or to An Garda Síochána.