Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome Ms Moylette and Mr. Moore. I commend the work they are doing. It is very important.

I served as chairman of Fáilte Ireland North West from 2008 to 2010 and became aware of the importance of the development of walking trails, particularly in the north west. There is an impressive list of 800 walking trails on the national trails register. During my time as chairman, there was a great focus on developing more and more trails, particularly in areas like the north west where the topography suited them and where they would have generated extra tourism income in a part of the country that had the lowest visitor numbers of all the regions.

Of course, the same would apply to certain other parts of the country along the western seaboard. At a time when we were struggling to get more people to visit Ireland, I remember learning the number of visitors, registered as walkers who visited the Lake District. There were 6 million registered walkers in the UK, our nearest neighbour. That is the reason I am concerned about certain elements that have been flagged by Comhairle na Tuaithe. The point has been made that if existing trails, cycleways and other infrastructure are not maintained to an adequate standard, then they will fall into disuse and disrepair, resulting in the waste of the initial capital investment. I presume that is a matter of grave concern to the witness. If the applications have closed because of budgetary constraints, I would like to explore if the allocation for maintenance from the budget is sufficient to ensure the existing trails are maintained to the highest standard. It would be disastrous if they were allowed to deteriorate. I appreciate that the country is broke but at the same time the Government sets out priorities. I would like to think this committee would add its voice to ensure there is a proper budget for the maintenance of existing trails so the scenario that has been outlined will not happen.

Ms Moylette referred to additional agencies that could support further development if they were given a specific mandate from the Government for such activities. Will she expand on that point? Perhaps some of the major multinationals could be engaged to sponsor the development of walking trails. I am not sure whether Ms Moylette has considered this or whether it would be a practical to try to do so. I like everybody else is looking around at ways and means of funding activities.

I think Ms Moylette has made superb points. She referred also to the role of rural recreation officers who were originally employed by the 12 local development companies, as an important point to source information as well as an important point of contact for inquiries about support and funding for local initiatives and large scale developments. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, has outlined in the action plan "Putting People First" a scenario in which the local development companies will be abolished or integrated into the local authority structures and come under a new grouping called social and economic committees. The Minister has not gone into detail on his plans in this regard and I know he is engaged in negotiations and discussions with the representatives of the local development companies who employ some 1,200 people and who are delivering this service. Does Ms Moylette have a view on the proposals? I appreciate that she could be somewhat constrained, as we all are for different reasons, for my part I do not know how this new configuration will work and the impact it will have on the existing local development companies, LDCs. Has Ms Moylette given some thought to it, or whether she will make a submission based on her perspective of the local development companies' mandate?