Madam, - In the column space provided last Saturday to David Herman, who to my best knowledge represents no organisation's views but his own, he sneered at the attempts since 1996 by the Mountaineering Council of Ireland (MCI) to seek partnership with both farming organisations and landowners in the management of countryside access.
His scorn for partnership is quite unjustified: it is precisely those walking areas which have working partnerships - the Mournes and Wicklow - where access problems are few and, when they occur, are generally settled amicably.
The MCI patiently awaits and encourages more urgency in the implementation of government proposals for a "Countryside Recreational Council" comprising representatives of all relevant bodies including government departments, landowners, recreational users, communities, local tourism (The Irish Times, January 7th) in order to deal with the problems of countryside recreation of which access is the greatest. Mr Herman is right to suggest there has been sluggishness in bringing forward such proposals by the Government.
As a walking activist I regret Mr Herman's habitual use of the sweepingly pejorative categorisation of farmers as "ruthless", which serves only to turn more farmers against walkers, since they assume Mr Herman speaks for more walkers than he actually does.
I respectfully suggest that if The Irish Times wants the views of Irish walkers, it speaks to the MCI, which is the responsible representative body and national governing body for hill walking, climbing and rambling in Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
FRANK NUGENT, Former Chairman of the Mountaineering Council of Ireland, Dublin 20.