Compulsory purchase and national park land
What I am concerned about is that over e1.7m of public money had to be expended in order to assure public access to a comparatively small area.
In other European countries, at little or no expense to the State, the landowner could have retained this type of barren land with legal rights granted to recreational users.
The end result in Ireland is that, because all National Park land has to be purchased outright, only 1% of the State is in National Park, compared to about 10% in Britain, where much national park land remains in private hands. It’s the same story over much of western and northern Europe.
This purchase once again emphasises the State’s cowardice in failing to take on the main farming organisations, and in particular the farmers who demand money to allow access onto their rough grazing land. This attitude exists particularly in the west where, thanks mainly to the attitude of these farming organisations, there are few walkers.
What a contrast between them and the owners of the Guinness estate, who have for decades generously allowed recreational users onto their land, without demanding a penny. It’s hard to begrudge them their windfall.
David Herman
Meadow Grove
Churchtown
Dublin 16
