Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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20. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the plans which are in place for expanding the walking and trails schemes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68489/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My department’s Walks Scheme provides funding to private landholders who maintain the walking trails that traverse their land. A trail must be approved and registered on Sport Ireland’s Trail Register in order to be considered for the scheme.

This scheme has grown substantially in recent years, with more than four times as many trails now approved on the scheme compared to this time 6 years ago.

In May of this year, I announced that an additional 22 new walking trails had received approval in principle to join the Walks Scheme. There are now 164 trails that are fully approved or have approval in principle to join the Walks Scheme compared to just 39 trails on the scheme at the end of 2019. This exceeds the commitment under Embracing Ireland’s Outdoors, the National Outdoor Recreation Strategy, to increase the number of trails covered by the Walks Scheme to 150.

Once a trail is approved to join the scheme, the local development companies who manage the scheme on behalf of my department work with landowners to develop tailored work plans and to fully bring the trail on to the scheme. To date, 120 trails and 2,719 landowners have been fully brought onto the scheme.

My department provides funding for 23 Rural Recreation Officers, or RROs, in 22 local development companies countrywide. Work is ongoing by the local development companies and the RROs to bring the remaining trails on to the scheme.

I am open to widening the scheme further in due course. My immediate focus is to bring the trails that have approval in principle fully on to the scheme as soon as possible. This will allow eligible landowners to undertake agreed work on the trails and receive their payments.