Call to clarify land access rights
Mr O’Rourke said it had recently been proposed that farm organisations would agree a countryside code and a national countryside recreation strategy to include arrangements for access to the countryside.
The suggestion is that farm organisations should fully engage on these matters within Comhairle na Tuaithe.
“It is our view that legislation is required to clarify the law and to protect the land and property interests of landowners and to ensure programmes can be introduced with the degree of legal certainty necessary to give a direct benefit to any farmer who allows access.
“Our starting point is landowners must have full protection under the Occupiers Liability Act from claims on them by recreational users. This issue has not been resolved in any of the common law jurisdictions without considerable and significant legislation.
“We would be naive to think, given the contentious issue of land ownership and possession, that we can resolve this by way of agreement regardless of how much goodwill there may be.
“Prudence and logic suggest that the Minister for Justice now request the Law Reform Commission to comprehensibly review the law relating to land access for recreational use and to make recommendations for reform and clarity of the legislation into a single consolidated Act“, he said.
Meanwhile, ICSA president Malcolm Thompson outlined four foundation stones to resolve farmer/hillwalker differences when he spoke at a Comhairle na Tuaithe conference, held under the auspices of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, in Portlaoise yesterday.
“Comhairle na Tuaithe has put together a viable framework on which to build bridges between rural and urban dwellers on the hillwalking issue.
“The foundation stones are mutual respect, the insurance and liability question, the tourism bounty and agreement on public rights of way,” he said.
