Mr. Lorcan O'Connor:

As the Chair said in his introduction, there are generally positive views as to the concept of greenways. The first few successful greenways that we have had in this country have, in large part, gone along old railway lines or otherwise. These are State lands and were relatively straightforward to deliver. I suspect at the time the people involved would not have thought so, but perhaps compared with the kind of complexities we are dealing with now.

The vast majority of greenways that we are looking at into the future will involve small parcels of private land, in all likelihood, for those greenways to actually be delivered. Therefore, the code is critical to their actual delivery. By sitting down with the IFA, the other farming organisations and other stakeholders as we look to update this code in this new phase of greenway delivery, it is incumbent on all to try to navigate a way through that works for all sides. We very much still believe that the code, based on collaboration, close engagement and ultimately voluntary agreements, is the way to go. Trying to do it any other way does not work in reality on the ground. You need the community support for these kinds of projects to actually get delivered.