Walkers seek rights to continue roaming

A group representing hillwalkers yesterday made a submission to the hearing of the Oireachtas committee which is examining property rights under the Constitution.

In 1937, when the Constitution was adopted, "people were free to roam. The situation now is very different, unfortunately," the joint committee was told yesterday.

Making a presentation on behalf of the Keep Ireland Open walkers group, Mr Roger Garland said it was its aim to promote "freedom to roam over about 7 per cent of Ireland's landscape".

The committee should seriously look at amending the Constitution where the right of access was concerned, he said, so long as that was compatible with protecting the environment, privacy and so on. "Property rights should not exclude reasonable freedom to roam."

Mr David Hermon told the committee that in 2001, overseas walking tours in the State were worth €144 million to the economy, "more than golf, angling and cycling". He said the Scottish assembly was preparing legislation to allow freedom to roam.

In this State, he said, there were "clashes all the way down the west coast where there are fewer walkers. The problems are in areas you'd least expect."

Mr Garland said Wicklow farmers dealt with "20 times as many \ and they do not complain".

The committee chairman, Mr Denis O'Donovan, spoke of the "extreme nervousness" of farmers to allow people on their lands because of insurance risks.

He gave as an example the case of a Donegal farmer who faced a substantial claim by a person injured while crossing his property.

Prof Frank Winder, for Keep Ireland Open, said in such cases it should be recognised that landowners had no common law duty of care. All had been "thrown upside down by the Donegal case", he said, which he understood was being appealed.

Senator John Dardis said he had lands near the Liffey at Newbridge, Co Kildare, and would traditionally have wanted to allow unfettered access. However huge areas of his corn had been trampled on. When he farmed in England, there was a public pathway through the lands and no one ever walked off it. He supposed "it would be naive to expect that would happen in Ireland".

Mr Garland agreed people were more orderly in Britain. He told Mr Ciarán Cuffe TD that in Denmark the Government had set aside €70,000 in a recent budget to pay landowners for damage caused by walkers.