The compulsory purchase of private farmland for the development of greenways is “fundamentally inappropriate” and is “damaging the trust between rural people and the State”, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
Several groups on Wednesday, including the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association, called for a Government commitment to end the use of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) for greenways.
Agriculture committee members heard that public land should be the preferred option for such amenities, under the Government’s greenway strategy, but this is “not being consistently followed”, according to Paul O’Brien, south Leinster regional chair of the IFA.
Although the Government has legal powers to use CPOs for infrastructure, the application of those powers to greenways is “fundamentally inappropriate”, he said.
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O’Brien, who said the IFA was “100 per cent against” the use of CPOs for such amenities, said about 60 greenways are currently being developed by local authorities nationwide, many of which are “already creating significant uncertainty and concern” among rural communities.
Cleona O’Shea, chair of the National Greenway Action Association, said landowners are being asked to carry the “permanent burden” of greenway policy.
Although her group is not opposed to the amenities, O’Shea said it is opposed to private farmland being “targeted, pressured or threatened with compulsory purchase”.
“A greenway is not an essential infrastructure. It is a recreational amenity,” she said, adding greenways should not be “forced through private farms against the will of the people who own and work and live on that land”.
[ Greenways of Ireland: Why some routes succeed and others failOpens in new window ]
She said landowners were seeing routes gather momentum before “proper engagement”, alongside private farmland being pursued before public options are exhausted.
Landowners are also being asked to allow survey access, which ultimately helps to “build a case for a route the landowner has not consented to”, she said, resulting in landowners now refusing access.
“Once a project reaches planning and permission is granted, the landowner’s position is severely weakened. Public money has been spent, political momentum has built, and the design is fixed around their land.
“That is why landowners are refusing survey access. Not because they are unreasonable but because trust has collapsed,” she said.
O’Shea said the use of CPOs is causing stress, dividing communities and “damaging trust between rural people and the State”, believing private land should be used for greenways only where there is “genuine voluntary agreement”.
The committee’s chair, Fianna Fáil TD Aindrias Moynihan, said CPOs were being “threatened very quickly”, which can cause “huge stress” on farmers.
“The CPO power seems to come very much out of the back pocket almost on day one, if it isn’t day two,” he said, arguing there “must be a better way of doing things than the threat of CPOs”.
