Newsletter 35. [Summer 2008] now available

Update to Donegal Occupier's Liability Case

WHO WE ARE 

Keep Ireland Open is the only national voluntary organisation campaigning for the right of recreational users to reasonable access to the Irish countryside.

What we are looking for are clearly marked legal rights of way, mainly in the lowlands and legal rights to allow freedom to roam in more remote and upland areas. We also campaign against barbed-wire fencing, especially prevalent in the West, which is both unsightly and denies access.

Keep Ireland Open was founded in 1994. Its members now include large numbers of concerned individuals and local groups as well as national organisations interested in the outdoors and the environment including:

Association of Irish Riding Clubs 

Catholic Guides of Ireland 

Federation of Local History Societies 

Irish Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association 

Irish Ramblers Club 

Irish Rural Link 

Irish Wildlife Trust 

An Óige 

Scout Association of Ireland 

Speleological Union of Ireland 

United Farmers Association

As you will see in the following pages recreational users have minimal rights to access the countryside. It is only by determined and sustained lobbying and campaigning that this situation can be reversed. We hope you will look at these pages and then consider contributing. Don't leave it to someone else!

IS THERE REALLY A PROBLEM ABOUT ACCESSING THE COUNTRYSIDE? 

You may say that we do not need legal rights as long as we can actually get into the countryside. Fair enough, but the sad facts are that we are rapidly losing even the informal rights we had to access our own countryside. This is not so obvious in Wicklow and the East of the country generally. Ironically these are the very areas where there are most walkers and landowners may have legitimate cause to complain. Most of the intractable problems are in the West, the area that attracts fewest walkers, and is otherwise a prime area for developing hill walking and other outdoor recreations as tourist attractions. Here are just a few of the current access problems:

 * Day trippers and casual walkers can no longer walk the Old Head of Kinsale, a traditional 'lung' since at least the 1870's for so many people from the Cork area.

* Hill walkers can no longer visit parts of ranges such as the Benbulbin area in Sligo, the Twelve Bens in Connemara, parts of the mountains of the Iveragh, Dingle and Beara peninsulas in Kerry or the Comeragh mountains.

* Archaelogists can no longer visit important megalithic tombs, for example at Carnbane in Westmeath

* A track to Lough Dan in Wicklow, a beautiful route used for generations of strollers and hill walkers, has been blocked 

* Two long standing tracks in Glencree have been blocked and, were it not for locals who were prepared to take the case to the High Court, would have been irrevocably lost. 

* Even beaches are not safe: Ugool beach near Westport, has been blocked off since 1989 while the local authority did nothing. It was left to locals and Keep Ireland Open to publicise this problem.

 

WHERE IS ALL THIS LEADING US? 

We have outlined above some of the current access problems. Bad as they are there is a more general problem in a jurisdiction where recreational users have no rights. It is this. With all the legal rights on their side access to the countryside can, and is increasingly becoming, a useful bargaining tool for individual farmers and farming organisations, both in order to extract further grants from the government and in disputes that have nothing to do with recreational users. So we have seen all the long distance way-marked paths in the south-west blocked off in a dispute that had nothing to do with walkers and further threats to block off whole areas of country in that same dispute. Areas of the north-west are out of bounds unless individual walkers pay or the State makes exorbitant grants. One of the leading farm organisations has put in a breathtakingly high demand to facilitate rights of way. All this is a direct consequence of a legal situation where one group of citizens (the landowners) has all the legal weapons and the other (the rest of us) has none. In this situation there has been a catastrophic fall in the numbers of incoming walkers and other outdoor people coming to Ireland. The tragedy of all this is that, with spectacular mountains and wildernesses, and with a magnificent coastline, Ireland could be a prime destination for the ever-growing outdoor tourism market. This is not in the interest of even farmers themselves: with agriculture in long-term decline and with farmers having to diversify, farmers themselves are eventually going to be the hardest hit by their leaders' short-sighted policy. This policy is particularly reprehensible in an era where farmers are paid an average of euro 300 per hectare per year merely for owning land. Having said all this we fully accept that the great majority of landowners willingly allow access. Unfortunately their views are drowned out by their more strident fellow-farmers and their own organisations.

 

WHAT ARE NOT SOLUTIONS TO THE ACCESS PROBLEM 

The following are sometimes cited as solutions, or at least partial solutions to the above problems. We do not agree.

A purely voluntary approach has been tried for many years now with conspicuous lack of success. Even if it were successful we would end up with access that can be withdrawn at the landowners' say so. He/she doesn't have to give a reason. This means that stiles, paths and guidebooks are totally dependent on the goodwill of landowners, and can be withdrawn at his/her say so. It also means that many routes would be out of bounds: with only one landowner on a route refusing access, the whole route could easily be non-viable. 

Comhairle na Tuaithe/the Countryside Commission. 

This was set up by the relevant Minister early in 2004. So far it has produced a Countryside Code and principles for accessing the countryside. The latter state that landowners have a right to decide who comes on to their land and recreational users are entitled to access where they are permitted. Stymied by the Minister's decision before it began its deliberations, we do not hold out much hope for this body. Grants to Landowners. In theory it is possible for the State (or even individual recreational users!) to buy its way out of the problem. Given the present demands of the farming organisations to allow access the cost would be enormous and consequently the area covered would be minute. This concept is totally against policy in the rest of Europe where access is normally granted at no expense to the State. As we have said, farmers get substantial grants just for owning land so the idea of further grants is preposterous. The relevant Minister has rightly rejected this approach. 'Sweetheart deals'. This involves negotiated access for compliant locals but not for others. There is little to be said about this selfish, short-term approach except that we totally reject it. 

The long distance waymarked walking routes are permissive paths, can be (and have been) blocked at will by the landowners in disputes that have nothing to do with walkers. At 3,000 km long they are, by international standards, far from extensive. In addition, only 16 percent is over private land and much is on tarmac or through dense coniferous forest. Being linear, they are not suitable for looped walks that many walkers want. The National Parks, although they include some of the most scenic areas of the country and mostly facilitate freedom to roam (see below) cover only 1 percent of the country.

WHAT'S REQUIRED NOW OUR PROPOSED SOLUTION 

What we are campaigning can be summarised in three words: legislation, legislation, legislation.

WHAT TYPE OF LEGISLATION? 

Firstly we must distinguish between freedom to roam and rights of way. For low value or rough grazing country freedom to roam allows recreational users to wander at will, except near houses, over growing crops etc. It is the norm all over Scotland and the Scandinavian countries and in parts of England and Wales. Ireland has no areas covered by freedom to roam except in the National Parks. In heavily cultivated areas rights of way are the norm. These are linear paths or tracks from which the walker should not deviate. They are normally marked on the maps and signposted. There are very few stretches in Ireland but 225,000 km in England and Wales and about 200,000 km in France. What we are looking for therefore is a legal right to allow freedom to roam in mainly remote rough grazing land, that is about 7 per cent of the total land area in the State. We are also campaigning for severe restrictions on intrusive barbed-wire fencing in those areas. Areas covered by freedom to roam should be marked on the maps and indicated on the ground. It would never be allowed in close proximity to dwellings or across growing crops, nor in areas of persistent vandalism. For other areas, mainly lowlands, we propose rights of way both to get to areas covered by freedom to roam and to form looped walks or walks to areas of interest, such as amenity areas or archaeological sites. Landowners can benefit directly from rights of way. Instead of walkers wandering blindly through farmed areas at random they could be channeled into rights of way and so avoid unnecessary disturbance. No Irish Government, and few local authorities, have yet taken on landowners in order to facilitate access to the countryside. They might be emboldened if they consider that: 

* Legislation to facilitate access is the norm all across west and north Europe.

* The EU has a presumption in favour of access.

* Since farmers are now receiving grants merely for owning land and since they claim to be 'the guardians of the countryside' they are unlikely to retain public sympathy if they continue to demand further grants for access.

* Cross-compliance measures. These make grants to landowners only if they carry out environmental measures of which access might be one, and have been implemented in other areas of the EU.

SO WHAT IS KIO DOING ABOUT ALL THIS?

 For well over a decade now KIO has been campaigning in a number of ways. We have:

 * Put the case for access to politicians, both national and local and to conferences and national fora.

* Written articles and had letters published in the national and local press, appeared on TV and radio.

* Recorded and publicised areas where access is barred.

* Researched the much more favourable status of access in other European countries

* Taken a case to the EU complaining against Ireland's excessive us of barbed-wire fencing (this case is ongoing but so far successful).

If you would like to inform us of any problems in your area please email us at info@keepirelandopen.org

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