Air and Water Pollution
Dail Éireann — 2025-10-15
============================================================

Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

I thank the Minister of State for his answer. He might acknowledge himself that there is not much in his response relating to the incidents residents have experienced and the petition they have launched. By the way, they have sent all the data to the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill.
I will outline some of the key findings from the survey conducted by residents, which give a picture of the problem residents in Cherrywood are facing, but it can also be a problem for people all across the country or anywhere where gorse fires can impact on air quality. A total of 60 households responded to the survey, of which 100% reported smoke entering indoors despite them keeping their windows shut, with exposure lasting ten to 14 consecutive days for most of the households. A total of 80% of households reported persistent coughing or sore throat; 70% reported headaches or migraines; 65% reported sleep disruption from night-time smoke; 40% reported stress and anxiety about health and safety; and 25% reported nausea, fatigue or eye irritation. Children were affected in at least 60% of households.
I will outline some of the personal stories of residents. One resident said that, "Even with windows sealed, my toddler woke up coughing and needed a doctor". Another remarked that, "We spent €400 on a purifier but our baby still woke coughing. The heat made it unbearable", while another resident described, "I woke at night thinking the house was on fire. The smoke inside was so strong". One other resident said, "Our newborn was exposed during her first three weeks of life. This is unacceptable in a modern country".
The World Health Organization, the CDC in the US and the European Environment Agency treat wildfire smoke as a major public health hazard. The EU directive requires member states to provide representative protective air quality information to the public but here we have an actual incident over a period of two weeks in Cherrywood where families are enduring exposure without meaningful monitoring, warnings or health advice. We need to do better.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-10-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:13+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-15