Madam, - It was saddening to read the report in your edition of April 16th about the Irish Farmers' Association's threat to instruct farmers to block the use of walking routes in the south and west.
Because the EU rightly considered it not possible to carry forward the payment-for-access element into the REPS II programme - no other farmers in the EU were getting it and anyway there is no knowing where such a principle would lead - the IFA thinks it should now be a direct payment, through the Exchequer, out of the pockets of the Irish taxpayer.
It is deeply regrettable that the simple enjoyment of a walk in the hills and countryside should now be used as a weapon to get still more free money for some farmers for very little. Some of your taxpaying readers may not be aware that, already 90 to 95 per cent of farm income in the west is provided out of their taxation payments and those of their fellow-citizens in the EU.
One would have thought that the IFA would do well to have kept such a sweetheart deal out of public notice and, instead of going to war over walking pathways, would have shown some reciprocal generosity and a spirit of sharing if only to glean some much-needed PR for itself.
The IFA is going to need good PR in the next few years as EU incoming cash transfers drop in favour of the acceding countries of eastern Europe, and as farm leaders come in with their demands that the shortfall be met by - who else? - the long-suffering PAYE taxpayer.
One wonders about the IDA's tactical sense in this affair. The use of these paths - many of them old green roads, established short-cuts, and even old railway lines - was not harming farming or agricultural activities in any way. The damage already caused to the environment through agricultural practices - horrendous overgrazing, widespread pollution of lake, river and ground water, and barbed-wire fencing everywhere in the West - far outweighs anything a few walking visitors are said to do. I personally do not know any walking club or individual walker that is not scrupulous in caring for the environment.
Many of my farmer friends are dismayed about this latest confrontation, and tell me their opinion was not sought. Some of their wives run family B&Bs which cater for walkers, among others. There have been many instances of unwelcoming behaviour, and even assaults, on walking visitors.
It is easy to understand their concern that this latest demand will only add to their problems. People will stop coming, in favour of wonderful walking areas in the UK and the Continent where the hills are entirely open and the welcome is genuine. Tourism bodies are well known to be very concerned at the dwindling of the activity holiday market, which had been seen as one of the few growth areas.
If walking and other visitors stop coming, farm B&Bs won't be occupied, and farm produce won't be consumed. Those facts alone should have made the IFA stop and think - and that is even before our national reputation comes into it.
The IFA has shot itself in the wellie on this one. It is not too late for it to tell its members to back off, count their taxpayer-donated blessings, and extend a welcome to all comers. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL MURPHY, Pinewoods, Westport, Co Mayo.