Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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My concern is with 30 farmers on Killery Mountain in Sligo and Leitrim. It is a part of the 50 km Sligo Walk. Some 5 km of the walk goes across that mountain. It is a very successful development, supported by the Sligo Leader programme with the permission of the landowners and the users of the mountain, who allow people to traverse the designated walkway. There was a caminothere in May 2018, during which 1,000 people registered and walked across that stretch of the mountain. Perhaps as many as 50 or 60 people walk this route every day, before, during and after May. There are 30 farmers there. In fairness to the people concerned, the Minister said that where there is burning people will be fined. The question, however, is who started this fire. Farmers are very much aware of the rules and regulations around payments and how they are drawn down. They will not do anything to jeopardise that, because they cannot afford to. They need every cent that they get to survive, especially in that particular area, where the land is very poor. These people are now technically being accused of starting a fire, which they did not. It could have been any one of the 60 people a day who walk that walk, who could have thrown a cigarette butt or a piece of glass. We must remember that the weather was very dry in May of last year. It was the best weather we had for the whole year, and a lot of people were using this walk. It is very unfair that these farmers are presumed guilty straight away and money is deducted from them. It is very wrong that this should happen. There is no proof of who started the fire, quite honestly, and I genuinely do not believe that any of those farmers did it. They know the rules and they have to live within them. None of them would jeopardise payments to anybody else. I feel very strongly about this. The decision here is very wrong, particularly when nobody knows.

I can understand this on closed and fenced mountain land, where there is not pedestrian traffic of this kind. In this case, the support of the local farmers allows a facility which is very beneficial to the community from a tourism point of view. It brought 1,000 people on one weekend for that particular event, and every hotel and bed in that region was full. Every guest house and every hotel bed was taken. That is the type of activity that takes place across that route, and I think it is terribly wrong that farmers are found guilty of starting a fire with no proof. Anybody could have started that fire and these people are being penalised in the wrong.