Áine Ryan
THE ONGOING controversy over hillwalking access will be top of the agenda at the IFA’s County Executive meeting to be held tomorrow night, Wednesday, The Mayo News has learned.
While last week’s publication of an expert group’s report was strongly welcomed by Keep Ireland Open’s (KIO) western secretary, Mr Michael Murphy, the IFA’s Mayo chairman, Mr Michael Biggins has accused Minister Éamon Ó Cuív of ‘courting controversy’ albeit ‘with the best will in the world’ in his attempts to resolve the impasse.
The Government-commissioned report has advised that the State can legislate to allow access to land for recreational purposes, without a contingent right of landowners to seek compensation. It has now been submitted to Comhairle na Tuaithe — a council established by Minister Éamon Ó Cuív in 2004 — for its consideration, but was immediately lambasted by IFA national chairman, Mr Pádraig Walshe, who dubbed it ‘an assault on rights’ and ‘tantamount to nationalisation’ of the land.
Crucially, the report acknowledged that while the Constitution recognises the natural right to private ownership of property, the ‘State may delimit by law the exercise of private property rights with a view to reconciling their exercise with the exigencies of the common good’.
“We’re welcoming [Minister] Éamon Ó Cuív’s announcement and there is no need for the IFA to get into a lather over this piddling issue, if you compare it to the other genuine ills affecting farmers. By going to war [on this matter], they are in danger of losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the tax-paying citizens of Ireland, some of whom like to walk this country’s uplands during their limited free time,” said Michael Murphy.
He observed that he had just returned from a holiday in Germany and France, taking in the Moselle Valley, and had stayed in working farms with walking facilities where, moreover, B&B accommodation was only €25 per person.
“These industries [farming and tourism] are beautifully integrated with superb walking and cycling facilities. There were grazing farms and ones producing crops of grain and vine, along with running their guest accommodation,” said Mr Murphy.
Mr Murphy accused Irish farming bodies, particularly the IFA, of ‘creating an absolutely unreasonable expectation of cash returns’ for farmers, that ‘to his credit, Éamon Ó Cuív could not concede’.
Through its Countryside Walkways Management Scheme, published in 2005, the IFA proposed a national network of walks through the creation of linear or shorter looped itineraries. It proposed that a payment of €1,000, plus €5 per metre, to farmers would cover ongoing maintenance and also reward farmers for the development of a high-quality tourism product. The IFA costing of €15 million, entailing about 30 walks (or 2,000km of walkways), has been discounted as far too modest by KIO.
Michael Biggins, told The Mayo News yesterday (Monday) that this impasse is not going to be resolved through confrontation. He also said that the more Minister Ó Cuív ‘digs in his heels’, the further away he will drive farmers.
“There is no reason why property-owners over a certain sea-level should have less rights than those in urban areas. Why should their [hill-farmers] property rights be diminished? This is a constitutional right. Why on earth should a hill-farmer let somebody walk over his land for free, while the hotel-owner down the road gains financially?” asked Mr Biggins.
“It’s a bit flippin’ Irish of him [the Minister] to come up with this just after the General Election. It flies totally in the face of the goodwill that was there before. And I’m very surprised he has come up with this solution when he lives in a constituency where there are a lot of farmers. Has he any idea how deeply this issue is felt ?” added Mr Biggins.
In reply to a question by The Mayo News, Mr Biggins said the whole issue of insurance remained ‘a very grey area’ and cited the extreme vulnerability of farmers when accidents occur.
However, the official IFA line is that the association is satisfied that the Public Liability Act of 1995 fully protects landowners where people access their lands. But Mr Walshe recently wrote in The Irish Times that ‘where walks are created [according to the proposed IFA scheme] and payment made the IFA proposes that the relevant local authority would be fully required to fully indemnify landowners’.
