Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is crucial because it was hoped when Comhairle na Tuaithe was set up that we might get a good working model where there was good agreement. There was such agreement. It was about providing access as long as everybody complied with all of these rules, etc. The land holders were then indemnified and would allow free access, specifically, to be publicised. This approach would then be extended quickly to virtually every hill one could get in to it. This happened and was started in 2007, 2008 or 2009 - I cannot remember exactly - but it is a long time ago, 15 years ago, and we are still stuck in the same few hills. Croagh Patrick is different because people go up a fixed path and it is like the walkway scheme. This was meant to be general open access where one could walk any part of the hill as long as the rules were followed. This also stopped wear on the hills because it spread the usage of the hill over a much greater area. Every weekend we have people parked between Maam and Maam Cross. That is great but they cross the hills all the way to Leenane.

That is fine. We need everybody to be happy about it, however, including the people who own the land. The big problem was the psychological difficulty whereby some people thought this land did not belong to anybody, but it does. It is as important to them as a field of corn is in County Kilkenny. It would be great if the committee could get an up-to-date briefing concerning where this endeavour stands and what the concept of it is now. We should put this on the work agenda for the autumn. I would appreciate it