Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)

The Minister and I are in agreement. I suggest that the pass would provide a fund which could be distributed and used to employ people to maintain the routes or given to farmers who put in a given number of hours' work on the routes. There could be a way of administering it with no charge on the State. However, the State should encourage and facilitate it. This might increase our tourism numbers, which are considerably reduced for hill walkers.

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