The Irish Farmers' Association has claimed a breakthrough in its negotiations with the Government on allowing limited access to their lands for walkers for payments which could cost the Irish taxpayer up to €15 million a year.
IFA president Pádraig Walshe said at the weekend that following a meeting with Minister for Community and Rural Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív, progress has been made towards setting up a countryside walkways scheme for the 2007 tourist season.
Mr Ó Cuív has opposed paying farmers for access to their lands but suggests they could be paid for the upkeep and maintenance of walkways. The stand-off between the two sides has seen a fall-off in the number of tourist walkers coming to Ireland because of access problems, and many Irish walkers go abroad for their sport for the same reason.
Following the meeting, Mr Walshe said the IFA walkways scheme would see the creation of either linear walks or shorter looped walks in the countryside by agreement with landowners.
He said annual payments would be made to farmers who develop and maintain walking facilities on their land and there was an opportunity to support the development of walks that would enhance the tourist potential of rural regions and boost their economic development.
He said the scheme could potentially involve 5,000 landowners in creating up to 2,000km of linear and looped walks throughout the country. This is equivalent to a walk three times the distance between Mizen Head and Malin Head.
Funding for the walkways management scheme would be made available from the Department of Tourism and Sport and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
Talks continue this week.