The UK environment secretary announced an ambitious scheme last week to establish a right of access to the entire coastline of Britain. This extension of the right to roam may reflect noble ideals, but it is rooted in utterly practical considerations. The UK, along with most developed countries, recognises that recreational walking has obvious social benefits. It can give a huge economic boost to rural communities struggling with the decline of farming and if well organised, provides an environmentally sustainable form of tourism.
Ireland is ideally placed to reap all of these benefits. Yet the development of walking here is stymied by an extraordinarily restrictive attitude to access. Almost uniquely in northern Europe, Ireland has no recognised right to roam over unproductive land. The courts have found that traditional rights of way have little legal force. Even where large way-marked routes have been established and are being promoted by tourism authorities, an individual landowner can decide at any moment to block access, making the whole scheme redundant.
Farming organisations no longer contest the benefits of walking tourism to rural communities or claim, as they had reason to do before the Occupiers Liability Act of 1995, that liability is their major concern. The issue for them now comes down to money. They want substantial annual payments in return for access and for work on preserving pathways and signage. This demand is, however, doubly problematic. It would not provide any long-term certainty, since an individual landowner could still block a whole route. And it is at odds with EU policy. Payments for access under the Rural Environmental Protection Schemes were discontinued by the EU because they were creating an unwelcome precedent for other European countries, where the right to roam is long established.
This situation benefits neither rural communities nor walkers and the rights of private property have to be weighed against clear harm to the common good. The ultimate solution will have to be a consensual one, but the voluntary approach adopted by the Minister for Rural Affairs has produced only limited results. The Access to the Countryside Bill published by the Labour Party seeks to establish the right to walk on high ground and open, uncultivated land, while indemnifying its owners. The establishment of such a right is indeed a necessary first step. Farmers should be fully consulted on how it should be implemented and the State should help landowners take advantage of the economic opportunities that will arise. But until the principle of access is established in law, there will be no firm ground on which to tread.