Sir, - I read with interest and sympathy the letter from my friend Sean B. Fox in your issue of October 9th. I agree in particular with what he has to say about walking paths throughout the Alpine region, which I have been saying myself for years.
I feel however that Mr Fox's letter is only half complete. He has dealt with the facilities afforded, but not with the questions which arise. First, who pays for the scrub clearance, the mowing or gravelling of the paths in question, their maintenance throughout the year and every year, the digging and keeping clear of drains, the construction, erection and maintenance of footbridges, fences, signs, stiles, seats, gates and shrines, and the marking of paths through farms and forests and across open mountains? Possibly the commune in the various Alpine countries, but in Ireland, I venture to think, nobody.
Second, who compensates the landowner for trampled fences, torn off branches, burnt out cars, uprooted shrubs, crumbled walls, graffiti on buildings, discarded sandwiches, empty beer cans, crisp packets, and all the other depredations that the landowner has to repair or clear up in his own time and at his own expense? Funnily enough, I have seen none of this in any of the Alpine countries, but I have seen plenty of it in Ireland.
Could it be that the landowners in the Alpine area are able to offer the facilities referred to by Mr Fox, because they do not have to bear the expense and suffer the vandalism referred to by me? I have also seen the letter under the same heading from Mr Murphy of ICMSA in the same issue of your newspaper. I could not disagree with a word of it. Yours, etc.,
Stepaside,
Co Dublin.