A final attempt to resolve the vexed issue of whether farmers should be paid for allowing access to land for recreational purposes will be made later today by Comhairle na Tuaithe, the Countryside Council, when it meets to agree a five-year strategy plan.
A final draft of the confidential countryside recreational strategy has recommended that on waymarked routes and walks managed by local groups, "landowners should be given the opportunity to benefit from participation in providing countryside recreation".
The strategy report, if agreed, will be forwarded to the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív, who has been opposed to landowners receiving taxpayers money for allowing access.
The Irish Farmers Association and other farm bodies have been looking for such payments and last year sought payment of €1,000 a year, topped up by €5 a metre, to allow walkers to cross their lands. These payments would cost €15 million a year.
The draft concluded that there was no single universally applicable solution to the access issue which arises from countryside recreation.
"Differing levels of pressure are brought to bear and different levels of access are required depending on the recreational activity being pursued, or the area of the country in which access is being sought," it said.
"In relation to walking, for example, solutions will differ depending on whether the issues relate to access to busy tourist trails, to national waymarked ways or subsidiary routes or to upland areas.
"Also, for example, because of its proximity to Dublin city and its suburbs, Co Wicklow attracts a large amount of walkers at the weekend."
On the issue of insurance for landowners to cover occupier's liability, the draft has recommended that consideration be given to the extension of the existing indemnity for waymarked ways to include private landowners against the risk of claims from recreational users of their land.
The draft also felt that the countryside recreation strategy should include the application of funding for pilot solutions to the access to the countryside issue that could be implemented in the short term, with a view to putting in place a nationally applicable solution in the medium term.
In a section dealing with sustainable and responsible recreation in the countryside, the draft has suggested that specific areas for recreational motorised activities be developed and measures should be strengthened to discourage them elsewhere.
It noted that in the 190 submissions it received on developing countryside recreation, there was evidence of conflict between the recreational activities such as angling and canoeing or hill-walking and mountain-biking.
Most recreational users highlighted an absence of clarity as to whether and where people may enter land.
It was acknowledged that permissive access, where a landowner allows access as opposed to access as of right, was allowed to most public land but that in some cases, but by no means all places, access to privately-owned land was a difficulty.
Landowners who made submissions were generally supportive of the recreational user, but expressed concern at attempts to impose rights of way on their property.
Permissive access to land was clearly the access method of choice by landowners, but some felt recreational use of land could result in damage to land or fixtures and a compensation scheme should be put in place.