Madam, - Your Editorial of June 26th on access to the countryside and walkers' right to roam succinctly summed up the continuing impasse in this area.
The High Court decision last week, which found in favour of a Co Wicklow landowner, will be a recurring situation unless legislation to clarify this area is forthcoming - something the judge in this case expressly mentioned.
However, it has been abundantly obvious for some time that this Government has no desire to tackle the issue seriously. The farming organisations make threatening noises and the Government backs off. This is all about money and always has been. The rest is smoke and mirrors.
Despite the Occupiers Liability Act 1995, which actually strengthened the law in this area in favour of the farmer/landowner by placing a far more onerous burden of proof on the visitor, the past decade has seen the farming movement actually become more truculent in this regard when the opposite should have been the case. A Supreme Court ruling in January 2005, which copper-fastened the law in this area, failed to make any real impact on this intransigence.
The farming movement consistently uses the self-serving and myopic excuse that farmers don't gain directly from any tourist revenue generated in their locality in the way that local businesses such as hotels, shops and B&Bs do. Fair enough, but they singularly fail to mention the various EU and Government grants from which they so richly benefit.
The farming community showed its true colours in July 2005 when the IFA first posited the idea of payment for allowing visitor access and that farmers in turn would maintain the routes in question, wilfully ignoring the fact that maintenance would be the duty of the relevant local authority. You'd be hard pressed to find a more blatant attempt to extort money from the taxpayer than this so-called "countryside walkways initiative".
I'm long of the opinion that this country has cornered the market in gombeen men and "cute hoorism" - and it appears nothing is going to change in the immediate future.
What is needed is a strong Government with the bottle to stand up to the farmers' lobby. - Yours, etc,
DAVID MARLBOROUGH, Kenilworth Park, Dublin 6w.
Madam, - Monday's Editorial voiced the urgent need for controlled access to clearly identified walking routes in our countryside. In February 2004 you published my letter making the same point. Minister Éamonn Ó Cuív responded, also through your Letters page, by saying that his recently established Comhairle na Tuaithe would solve the "right to roam" problem.
Mr Ó Cuív must now admit failure, as no progress has been made in the past two years. One of his colleagues in Government with the strength and courage to tackle this issue must now step forward.
Otherwise the debate will rage for years. - Yours, etc,
BARRY THORNTON, Rowanbyrn, Blackrock, Co Dublin.