A Roscommon native and president of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers association has called for an end to the demonisation of farmers.
His comments come following recent large gorse fires across Cork and Kerry.
Members of the Valentia Coast Guard were forced to contact the Kerry Fire Service after a gorse fire spread out of control and threatened to destroy their station
President of the INHFA and Ballaghaderreen native, Vincent Roddy, says a distinction needs to be drawn between illegal and controlled burning and farmers should not be the ones punished.
"What no farmer will ever accept is if someone accidentally or deliberately goes up onto their hill, lights a fire, that gets off and they lose off the back of that. If that becomes a feature, then I'd say there's a lot of farmers who will start to question the whole aspect of public access and all that and we don't want to get to that. I think it's important that we emphasise that as well. It's important that people, members of the general public understand that there is a distinction between those 2 types of fires".
