Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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144. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will review the policy of acquiring lands, for greenway cycle routes, by way of compulsorily acquisition; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9876/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I would like to state at the outset that there is no blanket policy of using the Compulsory Purchase Order method for acquiring lands for greenways. There are a number of models for using land for greenways only one of which is CPO.

With regard to the various models used to deliver individual projects, it is a matter for the County Council in charge of delivering a specific project to consider access to land on a case by case basis and take a multi-criteria approach in the route selection process. In the event of a proposed route traversing private land there are a number of options that can be considered by the authority, the first being the permissive access model. This is a worthy mechanism for certain cycling and walking projects, particularly on a local level. It is a low cost community based model that provides access to the natural environment without interfering with the property rights of the landowners.  Indeed, the most well-known Greenway in the country, the Great Western Greenway from Westport to Achill, has been built using the permissive access model.

While I fully support the need to consider negotiated financial agreements or, if required, CPO, I certainly recommend that all other options are considered before land purchase is decided on. There is no one size fits all approach to this.

As stated above, negotiated permissive access from the perspectives of cost and public ownership has value but, for projects of national scale, such as the Dublin to Galway greenway, consideration must be given to land purchase by agreement or if necessary by CPO. In the context of developing major cycling infrastructure projects that traverse long sections of privately owned land and involve major state investment, it would be precarious to rely on permissive access where the associated agreements may be withdrawn at any time without recourse to the State.