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Tourism Project Funding

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 January 2015

Wednesday, 14 January 2015

Questions (1019)

Éamon Ó Cuív

Question:

1019. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will fund long-distance greenways that are fenced and have a hard surface on them, where access is on a permissive basis or if it will be a condition of funding that the developers of such greenways have permanent access to the land in question in view of the considerable investment involved and in view of the uncertainty created by permissive access only; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1566/15]

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Written answers

My Department will consider all proposals submitted by local authorities under whichever funding programme is in place at the time. The nature of the surfacing provided on individual greenways would depend on the route to be traversed and it would not be unusual for portions of a single greenway to have different surfaces.

There is no one size fits all for greenways, each greenway will be assessed on its individual merits.

The permissive access model is a worthy mechanism for certain cycling and walking projects, particularly on a local level. It is a low cost community based model that provides access to the natural environment without interfering with the property rights of the landowners concerned.

In terms of the best land access models for greenway delivery, the use of publicly owned land is advantageous from the perspective of reducing costs. Negotiated permissive access, from the perspective of cost and public ownership, continues to have value but, for projects of national scale, consideration must be given to land purchase by agreement or if necessary by CPO. The process of obtaining permissive access is resource intensive especially where agreement would need to be secured with hundreds or more landowners. Greater investment is now being provided for greenways and it would be precarious to rely on permissive access where the associated agreements may be withdrawn at any time without recourse to the State. Of course, as already stated, it will be a matter for all developers of cycling infrastructure to consider access to land on a case by case basis and to take a multi-criteria approach in the route selection process. The key consideration should always be to select an approach that will maximise the future use of the amenity concerned. There are no plans within my Department to make future funding awards for greenways conditional on an authority having permanent access to those sections of the lands through which a greenway traverses.

In the context of developing major cycling infrastructure projects that traverse long sections of privately owned land, such as the Dublin – Galway greenway I fully support the need to consider negotiated financial agreements or, if required, CPO. However,  I certainly recommend that all other options are considered before land purchase is decided upon.

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