Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We feel this legislation is badly needed. Many of us, including the Minister, have been contacted by people in various solicitors' firms and by members of the public that have had major difficulties and problems with things that normally would have been undertaken with great ease in the past. The legislation in 2009 was mistaken in some of the things it tried to do. I look back and I try to think of why that was. I remember being in a solicitor's office one day around 2010 and he told me how he was after dealing with a gentleman who needed to get a half-inch water pipe to go across 7 ft. of property. The man who owned the 7 ft. of property wanted €80,000 to allow that piece of pipe to go across the property. It is understandable, therefore, why people were saying that it was necessary to find better solutions in this regard. While the 2009 Act may have been a genuine attempt to do that, it actually ended up causing more problems than it solved. We all recognise that.

There are issues in this regard for people who live in the countryside, who know farmland and the various issues associated with it. In my part of the country, we have co-meadows, which means several farmers own a plot of land. It is impossible to know where someone is. There are also, of course, mountains where commonages exist. All of those issues come into play. These issues are often relate to rights of way and entrances to properties and farmland. People can sometimes be difficult and have difficulty allowing somebody else access that has existed for generations. The 2009 legislation caused considerable difficulty for many people. Moving to try to allay those fears and go back to the way it was in the past may not be a perfect solution but it is certainly an awful lot better than what we have now. While reforms may be required, we need to move with caution when we move on any of these issues. That lesson has been learned. I hope we will be able to reform what we are putting in place now to deal with the small issues that can occur at times.

I come across such issues regularly, particularly in areas where walkways run through plots of land. Greenways have now become common and practical as people want to enjoy the outdoors. I know of many cases where people who use a marked walkway have veered off it onto private land. They consider it to be open mountain that belongs to everyone so why should they not walk it? However, it is not open land; it is private property. A constituent told me about a situation where he confronted somebody who came onto his property. That person was the best part of 1 km away from the marked walkway and was walking over rough terrain with a small child. My constituent asked what the person on his land would do if the child fell and broke a leg. He asked whether he would be sued by the parent in such a scenario because he owns the land. That is the issue that comes into play. Conflicts between property rights and the notion of the open countryside need to be addressed. We all want people to enjoy the open countryside but not in areas where farmers or landowners are liable.

I have come across many instances of people who have a property that includes a private lane running from a public road. Such a lane might service several houses. Sometimes landowners may also have access to that lane and because they have been moving cattle down the lane for many years, they have put up a gate. There is sometimes a row over whether the gate was left open or closed and that can turn into a High Court case. We all try to reason with people who come into our offices. We speak to them, try to make them see reason and try to find a solution. However, finding a solution is sometimes very difficult because people are prone to taking a tough position when it comes to property in Ireland. That is probably a result of our history and the notion of a landless and dispossessed people. When people finally get a piece of land, they want to hold it tight. We can understand that but, at the same time, we must try to apply logic and good reason. We must try to ensure people have civil discourses on these issues and try to find a solution. However, sometimes they cannot find a solution and when that is the case, we must come back to the law. We must find a law that serves the common good. That has been missing since the change in the 2009 legislation. It did not serve the common good and caused more acrimony and difficulty for people. This legislation, and the changes it provides for, will go some way to addressing that. The fact that we are facing a deadline of 30 November is not good but we are where we are and we understand that. We need to deal with the legislation quickly. I hope it goes through the Houses as fast as possible and that we can deal with it in a reasonable way. I encourage the Minister and her staff to bring forward the arrangements we need to update this legislation so it can work for everyone in the common good.

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