TWO farming organisations have expressed their concerns over the possible use of compulsory purchase orders [CPOs] to acquire farmlands for the development of Greenways.

The IFA and INHFA [Irish Hill Farmers and Natura Association] want the CPO option ‘completely removed’ for the purchase of Greenways’ land by Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

IFA Infrastructure Project Team Chair, Paul O’Brien, who last week addressed the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport on Greenways, called for their development – wherever possible – to be carried out on publicly owned lands.

He said that this principle was fully aligned with the Government’s Strategy for the Future Development of National and Regional Greenways (2018), which states that:

“The preferred model for future Greenways is to use lands already in the undisputed ownership or control of the State, either through Government Agencies, Government Departments or Local Authorities.”

However, according to Paul O’Brien, this principle is not being upheld in practice with many proposed Greenway routes now being planned to go through privately owned farmland rather than use public or state lands.

“This approach is deeply problematic and is causing significant anxiety and hardship for farm families whose livelihoods depend on those lands.

“Greenways are amenity projects and not essential public infrastructure such as national roads or power lines,” he said.

He added that the Code of Practice for Greenways – agreed between the IFA and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) – clearly provided for Voluntary Land Acquisition Agreements as the appropriate mechanism for securing access where required.

Some local authorities, he said, had also suggested that certain Greenways would follow ‘old or abandoned railway lines’.

Meanwhile, INHFA National Vice-President, John Joe Fitzgerald, said that if TII was allowed use CPOs for non-critical infrastructure projects, the door would be opened to a much wider application of the process and ‘that should be of concern to every farmer and landowner’.

“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,” said John Joe Fitzgerald. He added that there was a real possibility that by allowing the misuse of a CPOs for Greenways, the State cold use this option to buy land to extend national parks, or in nitrate vulnerable zones to purchase as a buffer zone.

“There also should be a requirement to provide a ‘needs analysis assessment’ as regards Greenways given our population and tourism numbers limitations.

“We now need to have the CPO option removed from the Code of Best Practice for Greenways option which can be 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,” said John Joe Fitzgerald.

■ The first use of a CPO to buy land for a Greenway took place five years ago in Kerry when the process was used to acquire lands for the Glenbeigh to Caherciveen Greenway.

Pictured: Greenways: ‘Use public lands’.