Independent arbitration boards may be set up to resolve the rights-of-way issue between hill walkers and farmers.
The proposal emerged yesterday from a meeting of Comhairle na Tuaithe, the countryside council set up to promote use of the countryside for recreation.
A spokesperson for the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív, said he was very interested in the proposal, and would give it very serious consideration.
The meeting yesterday in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, suggested that an arbitration system be set up to decide on the merits of claims of rights of way.
It is envisaged that local authorities will be asked to draw up a list of rights of way in their areas and these would go to arbitration. This would avoid litigation which could arise from any challenge by either hill walkers or landowners to the listed rights of way.
However, the council indicated that this would not preclude anyone taking legal action to object to the closure or opening of a pathway .
Mr Ó Cuív recently repeated his opposition to paying farmers for allowing walkers on mountains or open moorland on so-called "permissive ways".
However, he said he often found a situation where walkers had to go across green land to get access to a hill, and that was an unsatisfactory situation from the farmer's point of view.
"I can see a situation where you would lease or buy access routes to hills so you would not have to go across enclosed space," said the Minister.