IFA claims are a walk on the wild side

WE are not over impressed by recent IFA claims of a breakthrough in negotiations with Rural Affairs Minister Éamon Ó Cuív about access to the countryside.

The IFA has moved little from its original demand of €10 million per year for walkways, plus €5m annually for farms involved in its Walkways Scheme. While the latter demand remains unchanged, the former now seems dependent on maintaining proposed walkways.

Farmers are already adequately provided for under the Single Payments Scheme and in other European countries landowners normally provide rights of way for nothing.