JOSS LYNAM,
Sir, - I refer to the report by your Agricultural Correspondent in your edition of January 29th concerning the withdrawal of the supplement to farmers for allowing access under the first REPS scheme.
He suggests that all the 40,000 farmers in the scheme availed of this "top-up", but, as Mr Con Hickey told us later on RTE 1, only some 300 farmers were receiving the supplement. As far as I know, the properties of these 300 farmers are on National Network Long Distance Waymarked Ways, so to suggest that there could be widespread banning of access is quite mistaken.
However, in other respects the situation is serious; if the farmers involved did prohibit access, it would cause the closure of seven of the 32 National Network Waymarked Ways.
We understand that the EU does not allow the supplement for access because, unlike other parts of REPS, access does not actually involve the farmer in extra work. This is questionable; maintenance of the ways is generally the responsibility of the local authority, but there will always be problems with fences, dogs and minor vandalism which will cost the farmer time and money to repair.
The National Waymarked Ways Committee of the Irish Sports Council, which promotes the development and maintenance of walking routes, agrees with the farmers involved that a replacement scheme should be put in place and has been working with the Departments of Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Agriculture over the past year to design a scheme that will be fair to the farmers and acceptable to the EU.
As regards general access to the countryside, while there have been some highly publicised cases of refusal of access, I have found that the vast majority of farmers permit access to open countryside to individual and club walkers, but feel justifiably annoyed when commercial operators cross their property without payment and sometimes without even seeking permission. - Yours, etc.,
JOSS LYNAM,
Chairman,
National Waymarked Ways
Advisory Committee,
Irish Sports Council,
Dublin 2.