Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan has hit out at Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan’s comments that he would not rule out compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) to acquire land for national parks.
The IFA labelled the comments from the Green Party leader as “inflammatory and delusional”, with Cullinan questioning the legality of the option.
“It is bad enough that Eamon Ryan wants to use State funds to encourage the rewilding of land to take it out of production, but now he wants use the powers of the State to confiscate land from private citizens,” the IFA president stated.
“Using compulsory purchase orders in this way would be an abuse of power and highly questionable from a legal perspective.
“I want to make it clear that [the] IFA will use every possible avenue to stop such a move.
“Just because Eamon Ryan is a Government minister doesn’t mean he ‘owns the country’. We have a constitution and every citizen has rights that cannot just be taken away by Eamon Ryan or any other citizen,” he said.
SHARING OPTIONS