The hill farmers' group is also looking for the completion of a wider assessment into the need for greenways. \ Donal Magner
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The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has voiced concern that the State’s use of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) for buying up land for greenways could put farmers on a slippery slope.
The group’s vice president John Joe Fitzgerald has warned that allowing Transport Infrastructure Ireland to go down the CPO route for non-critical infrastructure projects opens the door “for a much wider application” that should concern every farmer.
“By allowing CPOs for greenway projects, we are facilitating their use for what some would argue is a public good. However, defining a public good is open to interpretation,” the INHFA deputy leader said.
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Fitzgerald stated that the greenway precedent leaves a “real possibility” that CPOs could be used by the State to expand national parks or to acquire farmland for use as buffer zones along river.
“We don’t have the population or tourism base to justify this ongoing expansion [of greenways] and at a time when we are seeing budget cuts that will impact farmers amongst others, the money earmarked for greenways is a luxury that we can’t afford,” he continued.
The INHFA is looking for the option of CPOs for greenways on farmland to be removed from greenways’ code of practice, as Fitzgerald said that the option has been “abused and used as a threat in forcing farmers and landowners to accept a massive imposition around their way of life, their privacy and potentially their safety.”
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The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has voiced concern that the State’s use of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) for buying up land for greenways could put farmers on a slippery slope.
The group’s vice president John Joe Fitzgerald has warned that allowing Transport Infrastructure Ireland to go down the CPO route for non-critical infrastructure projects opens the door “for a much wider application” that should concern every farmer.
“By allowing CPOs for greenway projects, we are facilitating their use for what some would argue is a public good. However, defining a public good is open to interpretation,” the INHFA deputy leader said.
Fitzgerald stated that the greenway precedent leaves a “real possibility” that CPOs could be used by the State to expand national parks or to acquire farmland for use as buffer zones along river.
“We don’t have the population or tourism base to justify this ongoing expansion [of greenways] and at a time when we are seeing budget cuts that will impact farmers amongst others, the money earmarked for greenways is a luxury that we can’t afford,” he continued.
The INHFA is looking for the option of CPOs for greenways on farmland to be removed from greenways’ code of practice, as Fitzgerald said that the option has been “abused and used as a threat in forcing farmers and landowners to accept a massive imposition around their way of life, their privacy and potentially their safety.”
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