Greens seek protection of rights of way

THE Green Party yesterday launched a campaign to have ‘rights of way’ enshrined in County Development Plans in order to reverse huge declines in the number of walking visitors coming to Ireland.

The party is bringing a Private Members Bill before the Dáil that would require local authorities to list all existing public rights of way in their area, particularly those that give access to places of natural beauty or recreational areas.

Speaking at the launch yesterday, the Greens’ tourism spokesperson, Paul Gogarty, said the proposed legislation was prompted by concerns that continuing controversy and bad publicity over access to mountains, lakes and the seashore had led to the dramatic fall-off in hill walkers. There is also concern within the party about moves in some local authority areas to extinguish rights of way. The most recent occurrence was in Wicklow, where the IFA led a campaign to drop 14 rights of way and 33 “access routes” to the countryside and mountains.