Retailers have been asked to halt the sale of disposable barbecues during the Status Orange wildfire warning.
RTÉ have reported that Government sources have said that messages have been sent to retailers across the country, calling for them to suspend the sale of disposable barbecues for the time being. This move was also concurred with by the Department of Enterprise as well as the National Parks and Wildfire Service amid a request from the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management.
This recommendation is not legally binding however.
It was also confirmed that the Department of Enterprise would liaise with its Retail Forum to communicate with as many business as possible.
This comes as a Status Orange High Forest Risk Warning was put in place until 12pm tomorrow, but could be extended.
The situation will continue to be monitored closely by the National Severe Weather and Flood Coordination Group and the Department of Agriculture with Met Éireann still predicting temperatures to hit highs of 24 degrees on Sunday.
The Cabinet are to also meet next week to discuss proposals to implement an outright ban on disposable barbecues across Ireland's national parks. Minister of State for Nature Heritage and Biodiversity, Christopher O'Sullivan is currently drafting this Heads of bill.
News of this comes as Independent TD for Kerry, Michael Healy-Rae blasted the use of disposable barbecues, despite being banned in national parks.
"Lighting a BBQ in an area like this where the ground is like paper, it's like dried out paper now at the moment, one spark and the people there wouldn't even be able to contain it and it would just take off", the TD told RTÉ Radio.
"I don't ever believe in a situation like this that the people were bad people, but I do believe they were possibly and potentially stupid people, because they should have known better".
In the same interview, Mr Healy-Rae said he feels people ought to face prosecution where a fire is cause through recklessness.
"But we must now send out a message. The rules are there, the regulations are there, and if people need to be prosecuted for doing something like this, of course they should, because the overwhelming majority of people respect our countryside but unfortunately it only takes one careless person to cause enormous damage", he said.
News of this also comes as a six week hosepipe ban takes effect across six areas in Ireland, including Dublin, south Tipperary and parts of Kildare, Meath, Wexford and Wicklow, remaining until August 26. More on this from Nova here.
