Sir, - In your edition of March 12th you covered the launch by the Heritage Council of a series of policy papers "promoting pride in Ireland's heritage". Certainly these are excellent papers as far as they go. However, Keep Ireland Open is concerned that the section on the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme does not refer to the drawbacks of REPS in sheep-farming hill country. In these areas, REPS is a disaster. Far from enhancing the environment, it is doing the opposite.
In an answer to a Dail question recently, the Minister for Agriculture and Food indicated that before a farmer could be approved for REPS his/her holding should be enclosed by a "stock-proof" fence. There is no tradition of fencing in these areas which are now mostly designated as SACs, NHAs and SPAs. The effect of this enclosure, invariably with barbed wire fencing, is to deny access to areas traditionally open to the public and to blight the landscape. Then there is the issue of the planning regulations which state quite clearly that the fencing of hitherto unfenced land requires planning permission. This is rarely sought.
The folly of this requirement to fence is now recognised by farming organisations, chambers of commerce and regional tourist organisations. If it was government policy to discourage walking visitors, it couldn't be done more effectively. Why foreign hill walkers would want to visit the west of Ireland is a mystery when they can visit other European countries where there is virtually no fencing of upland areas. - Yours, etc., Roger Garland, Keep Ireland Open,
Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.