Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will take the easy question first, that of the walks scheme. Actually, it is not easy, but it is one of the better schemes that the Deputy set up and it has worked well. We have 39 trails and 1,905 farmers involved in the scheme, costing the taxpayer €1.8 million per year. I told the Deputy during our previous Dáil Question Time that I was hoping to get more walks included in the scheme by the end of this year. I am committed to doing that. I will have to provide funding for payments in next year's budget.

As to this year's payments, I will need to consider ways and means of increasing the number of walks. I want to do that because, although the money involved is small, it supports those farmers who have been supportive of the scheme and it has worked well. I have made clear to my departmental officials that I do not want the scheme to be complicated in any way. How it works should remain simple. I need to identify and implement a process to get more walks involved. I intend to have a number of walks selected by the end of the year and have them in payment for next year. I will honour the commitment that I made to the Dáil in that regard. I have made clear to my officials that I want this done, and it will be done between now and the end of the year.

The Deputy's first question is more difficult. When I held a meeting with the IFA today, that scheme was one of the issues raised. The IFA has great concerns about it. Deputy Ó Cuív and other Deputies have been raising it with me for a long time. The Department is considering ways and means. The Deputy is aware that the previous Department I happened to be in dealt with a court case involving the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, and something that occurred on a mountain. It is wonderful that the State won the case on appeal. Otherwise, it would have had serious consequences for walks, trails, etc.

We need to consider this scheme. Alongside my legal advisers, officials in my Department are working to determine whether anything can be done with it. The Deputy was correct in how he outlined the situation. If landowners or farmers are allowing people onto their land, why should they have to hire solicitors and barristers if a case goes to court, possibly even the High Court? The State will have to play its part. We are considering this matter and I am waiting on that advice. I am working on it because this issue has been ongoing for a long time and it needs to be addressed.