State to offer landowners tens of millions to sell up for greenways

The State is set to offer tens of millions in goodwill payments to landowners who sell their land to facilitate the construction of greenways as part of a national agreement to be announced today.

Greenways are generally traffic-free routes built for use by cyclists, pedestrians and other non-motorised transport.

The Department of Transport has set aside some €360 million from its budget allocation to develop more such routes next year and beyond.

Plans to create a major cycling network across Irish cities, towns and villages have been set out in a government strategy for delivering on climate action commitments, and several greenway projects are to be approved and promoted.

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The agreement is the product of the Working Group for the Code of Best Practice for National and Regional Greenways and has been 2½ years in the making.

Tom Considine, independent chairman of group, said it would ensure that the National and Regional Greenways programme can be “implemented efficiently”.

A key obstacle to the programme has been opposition from landowners across the country.

The agreement, between a number of stakeholders including the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), will see landowners offered an initial flat payment of €3,250 and a sum per linear metre of land for their co-operation.

The payment, known as a “sustainability payment” will be paid in addition to the purchase price of the land involved.

‘Safeguard’ for farmers

Landowners would be divided into five bands for the additional payment per linear metre. Landowners with less than 100m affected would receive a further €3,500, those with 101m-250m would receive another €8,750, and this would rise to €14,000 for 251m-400m and to €19,250 for 401m-550m.

The fifth band, for those with more than 550m, starts at €19,250 and is adjusted upwards based on the length involved. It is understood that the significant majority of landowners would fall into bands one and two.

Half of the additional payment is contingent upon “early sign-on”, whereby a voluntary land acquisition agreement is agreed before the planning authority makes its decision.

While the payment is designed to avoid the use of compulsory purchase orders, it is understood the agreement does allow for the use of such orders “as a last resort”.

The arrangement will be in place for a period of five years and commences from January 1st. The IFA estimates that thousands of farmers will be asked to take part in the scheme, with the State likely to pay out tens of millions.

IFA president Tim Cullinan said the agreement was “an important safeguard” for farmers whose land is on greenway routes”.

A key part of the code was a new “sustainability payment” - a once-off goodwill payment for early-sign on and co-operation - to each farmer “on top of the full value of any land acquired for a greenway as part of a voluntary land acquisition agreement process,” he said.

“The farmer’s statutory rights are fully protected if they participate in this voluntary process. They still have full access to mediation and arbitration if there is no agreement on the valuation of the land and compensation for other impacts on their farms.

“This code allows for a clear engagement process to minimise the impact and disruption to individual farms, along with a sustainability payment to farmers for their co-operation with the project during the construction phase.”