Labour plan the key to farmland access deal
Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Minister Eamon Ó Cuiv set up Comhairle Na Tuaithe in 2004 to address the three priority issues of
1. Access to the countryside.
2. Developing a countryside code, and
3. Developing a countryside recreation strategy.
Significant progress on these matters has been blocked by the question of access, land ownership and financial payment.
Meanwhile, rural tourism stagnates and existing access to the countryside is being curtailed.
The minister’s expert group concludes “there is no case for payment of compensation merely because a statutory scheme permits members of the public to enter on lands capable of being enjoyed for recreational purposes under a regime which requires those exercising the right to defer to the legitimate interests of those who own or occupy the property”.
The expert group consisted of a senior counsel and officials from the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
Legislation is required to clarify the position.
Labour’s Access to the Countryside Bill 2007, published this spring, anticipated the findings of the expert group and serves as the basis for a sensible and measured discussion about how we can proceed together. (See our website www.labour.ie/policy/listing.html).
Farming organisations in general, and the IFA in particular, should now show constructive leadership on this issue.
Without legal certainty, Comhairle na Tuaithe cannot implement its national countryside recreation strategy.
Failure by the farmers’ interests to make progress on this issue now that we have the expert group’s report will be bad for the rural economy, detrimental to our tourism industry and a major setback to the hundreds of thousands of Irishmen and women who simply want to enjoy the countryside of their native land.
Ruairi Quinn TD
Dáil Eireann
Dublin 2
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