Mr. Gerry Egan:

There are many areas of commonage on Coillte land. There are situations where we facilitate sheep grazing and so on. The perennial difficulty in respect of commonage is that it is owned by many people. Therefore, trying to reach agreement where one might have 25 people who own areas in common can be problematic. If there are specific examples the Senator would like to bring to us, we would be more than happy to look at those.

Senator Comiskey also spoke about walks being in a state of disrepair. One of the partnerships we established was one with the Irish Sports Council. Three regional trails officers have been funded through that scheme. Their full-time job is to investigate these areas and make sure they are kept open all the time, particularly in the case of long-distance waymarked ways. Again, if the Senator is concerned about specifics, I would be more than happy to get the details and we will make sure those problems get sorted out.

In respect of good land and the opportunity for a farmer to buy the land back - getting the land back might be a better expression.