Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Ms Moylette. The discussion today has informed us and reassured us that there is an entity within a Department that has a grasp of all the issues. Ms Moylette mentioned she would approach the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, which is very important. To be fair, that Department was handed the draft commonage rules from another Department, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and in ways was handed something of a hot potato, but now is the time to engage.

The same applies to Pillar II rural development money. Ms Moylette said it was at an early stage. The CAP in general is at an advanced stage but the details of Pillar II and how it will be funded is at a preliminary stage. Now is the time to get involved. Both of those are interlinked with the issue of access. Given that Comhairle na Tuaithe has a forum that brings everybody into the one discussion group in order to develop an understanding, it will be important that the commonages and the rural development funding both have a resonance with regard to access into the future. The same applies to dogs and the leave no trace code being developed. In the area where I live many of the public lands need to be accessed through private properties in the first place. Somebody mentioned that one Department would be helpful, but I do not believe it is feasible to do it. As an entity within the lead Department, Comhairle na Tuaithe is ideally placed.

I wish the witnesses well. As we will discuss later, we plan to invite officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to come and discuss commonages. They are at a developmental stage. There was concern before Christmas that letters would be written to farm landowners about having to sign up to these, which really raised the ire about the whole issue. Access may have been a casualty of that.

I thank the witnesses.