Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to revert to the incident that happened in Glenmalure last week regarding the farmer, Pat Dunne. We all know the importance of outdoor recreation and all our councils now have an outdoor recreation strategy. A critical part of that strategy is access to the uplands and mountains. I came across a piece in this morning's edition of The Irish Timesby Helen Lawless, who is one of the officers with Mountaineering Ireland and its clear position on dogs is that no dogs should be taken onto the hills without the landowner's permission.

Most of us who actually use the uplands - I am a huge user of this form of recreation myself - respect that but what happened in Glenmalure last week is completely unacceptable. First, I want to talk about Pat Dunne himself. I know him personally and have worked with him for over 20 years now. I have served with him on the national parks council and on the Wicklow Uplands Council. He has done more to open access to the uplands than any other farmer in Wicklow and he has been proactive in developing agreed access routes. County Wicklow was the leader in that, and behind that was Pat Dunne. That is why it is very disappointing that this incident happened.

Pictures have emerged over the weekend which clearly show Pat Dunne being shoved to the ground, while the son of the man takes the three dogs up the zig-zags and on the left-hand side, you can see cattle standing there. Pat Dunne has agreed access on that route for 20 years. He asked for one thing and one thing only: that no dogs be allowed. Something has to happen and unless this is dealt with, the outdoor recreation strategy in every one of our counties will be put in jeopardy. It is the minority, sadly, who are physically taking advantage of access routes agreed by farmers. From Pat Dunne's point of view, you could not meet a more positive farmer, who has allowed access across his ground and has promoted the possibility of other farmers allowing access on their lands. I wanted to put that in context.