Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

This is always a problem. The ownership issue was a problem when the commonages were destocked. In most upland areas, the landowners are more than willing to allow people cross them. The consensus in Comhairle na Tuaithe is that upland areas should be accessible and, as long as people are not doing damage, there should be no difficulty accessing them. There is a large number of mountains where I live and the tenure system in place means they are in commonages while other large mountains are in private ownership. The general approach to is treat them similarly and the owners tend not to object to people walking across the mountains. We should keep it that way and presume that, unless otherwise stated, there is no objection to crossing mountains.

The issue was discussed by Comhairle na Tuaithe and there is little difference between the landowners and recreational users. Crossing enclosed fields is a different issue as this raises safety concerns relating to gates, machinery, livestock and so on. The solution to this is a little more sophisticated. Where people want access from a road to a mountain I wanted to try to secure agreement with the landowners to build pathways through the granting of a licence or other arrangement such as the rural social scheme.

I have lived in the countryside for approximately 30 years and I am absolutely convinced that whatever chance there is of resolving this by dialogue, the heavy hand of the law will not resolve the underlying issue because a law which people do not buy into is unenforceable in a situation like this. We are going the tedious, slow way, but it will achieve the best result.

My other basic principle, which I have made clear to the farming organisations, including the organisation referred to by the Deputy, is if there are areas in which farmers do not wish to promote rural tourism, so be it. The vast majority of people living in uplands and areas of attraction for rural tourism recognise the benefits for them. The rural social scheme is helpful in this regard because it covers farmers and a large number of rural tourism Leader groups using the scheme are anxious to work on walkways. When the farmers are working on the walkways, it is unlikely their neighbours will oppose them.

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