Madam, - The €400 million estimated cost of the IFA hill-walking initiative reported in The Irish Times (August 31st) is a highly mischievous and inaccurate figure which was invented by opponents to discredit this serious and worthwhile proposal.
The published costing of the IFA proposal is in fact €6 million per year rising potentially over time to €15 million per year. When fully developed, up to 2,000 kilometres of specially designated walkways would be created, developed to high standards by farmers and community groups actively involved in promoting recreational tourism in rural areas.
Participation would have built up to a total of 5,000 farmers, benefiting by an average of €3,000 per year, in what would have been a major boost to rural tourism, helping to redress the regional imbalance. I am extremely disappointed that after two-and-a-half years of discussions Comhairle na Tuaithe failed to come up with any concrete proposals for a workable hill-walking scheme.
IFA rejects suggestions by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamon Ó Cuív, that the means-tested, social welfare-based Rural Social Scheme be used to pay benefit to farmers for working to build and maintain walkways in their areas.
This is a totally misleading and inappropriate mechanism as many farmers developing walkways across their lands would not be eligible for this scheme. - Yours, etc,
NEILIE O'LEARY, Chairman, IFA National Hill Farming Committee, Bluebell, Dublin 12.