Madam, - In his letter attacking David Herman (January 15th), Frank Nugent effectively admits that, after eight years of "seeking partnerships", the Mountaineering Council of Ireland (MCI) has only achieved access agreements for hill-walkers in two upland areas (and only one of those is in the Republic). He does not state how robust these agreements would prove if farmers, individually or collectively, wished to withdraw for any reason, or none.
While Mr Nugent is right that the MCI technically represents all of Ireland's climbers, hill-walkers and ramblers, I know many walkers have long felt that this organisation devotes a disproportionate amount of its resources to promoting the interests of mountaineers and rock-climbers.
A motion questioning the Irish Ramblers Club's continuing relationship with the MCI has been discussed at the club's a.g.m. at least once in recent years.
I am sure many hill-walkers will find their views more in tune with those of David Herman, Michael Gibbons's letter of January 16th, and Keep Ireland Open, than with those of Mr Nugent and the MCI.
The Government needs urgently to establish a legal framework for countryside access throughout the Republic and to make it clear to farmers that they are not the only interest group in rural Ireland.
If the MCI cannot promote walkers' interests more effectively, Ireland's walking clubs should perhaps consider setting up their own organisation along the lines of the Ramblers' Association in Britain, which operates quite independently from the British Mountaineering Council. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL HUDSON, Billericay, Essex, England.