Laws needed to protect uplands

QUADS, sports utility vehicles and scramblers are using beautiful upland commonage areas for recreational use, the Dáil has been told.

Green Party TD Mary White said she is very concerned about what is happening in special areas of conservation, particularly in the Blackstairs Mountains on the Carlow-Wexford border and also on the upland areas of Co Wicklow.

“These lands are farmers’ fields. They use the lands for commonage grazing and they collect financial payments for that. Unfortunately, some people using quads, SUVs and scramblers are destroying the habitat on which these farmers graze their sheep,” she said.

Ms White said that under the European Union habitats directive, farmers will be penalised, and she believed the Government will be also penalised unless it brings in by-laws or national legislation to protect these wonderful upland commonages.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe, standing in for Environment Minister John Gormley, said the use of off-road vehicles in upland areas is an issue of concern because of the damage these can cause to sensitive habitats and designated habitats.

It is envisaged that amendments to the habitats regulations, now being drafted, will contain measures to make the control of such vehicles and activities more effective.

In this context, consideration is also being given to the introduction of registration and licensing for recreational off-road vehicles.

In the meantime, anyone with information on where and when such activity is occurring should contact the relevant regional office of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, he said.