Madam, – Risteárd Ó Muirgheasa (December 30th) and Ronnie O’Gorman (January 4th) both urge mediation between the owners of the Lissadell Estate and Sligo County Council with regard to public rights of way at Lissadell.
Your readers should be aware, as Brendan Cafferty (December 31st) is, that the council did offer to discuss the matter with the owners before the proceedings issued and made a firm offer of mediation at a meeting between the council and the owners shortly after the proceedings had issued. The owners refused to engage and insisted that the proceedings were the preferred way they wished the matter to proceed.
The council therefore came to these proceedings as a defendant. It did not initiate them and following considered legal advice took the decision (in the public interest) to fully defend them.
It is therefore incorrect and misleading for Mr O’Gorman to suggest that the council “hounded” the owners through the courts. On the contrary, the owners pursued the proceedings with considerable vigour which, as your readers now know, resulted in a High Court action that lasted in excess of 55 days.
The council would have preferred to have discussed and if possible resolved the matter on terms that were acceptable to both the owners and the local community.
Unfortunately this did not happen as the council was never allowed to do so and was forced into a position of having to defend the legal proceedings issued against it. – Yours, etc,