Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is the case with accessibility and all of these other issues. The fact is that we are sliding backwards on public rights of way. I spoke to the Minister of State two years and a half years ago about the vision for what public rights of way could be, even from a green perspective. Our amendments refer to access to spaces of natural beauty. It is not just about that; it is about access to schools, children being able to travel on their own down cow-roads or public rights of way and people being able to access water or our rivers or nature. Our amendments mention access to cemeteries. There is a consistent failure to try to strengthen the legislation. What we are seeing is a weakening. The Minister of State has just said that there are lots of reasons we might not want to list rights of way.