Walkers and landowners are embroiled in a new dispute over access rights to some of Co Wicklow's best-known walking areas, including parts of the Wicklow Way.
Last year Wicklow County Council removed 13 rights of way from its development plan. This followed a campaign by members of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), which said landowners were not consulted by the council over the routes.
The council has now established a committee to examine and make recommendations on each of those 13 rights of way, and to consult with affected farmers.
The delisting of a further 33 access routes in the plan is due to be discussed by the council today, with proposals to refer them to the same committee. The committee would then recommend whether they should be removed from the plan, modified or reinstated.
The routes include some of the best-known walking paths in Co Wicklow, including a section of the Wicklow Way, and several close to Glendalough. Many link on to paths in the State-owned Wicklow National Park, which covers much of the Wicklow Mountains.
Keep Ireland Open, which has been campaigning on rights of way and rights of access issues, has claimed the removal could lead to a situation where the only available walking routes in Wicklow were in the national park and Coillte-owned lands.
Farmers have rejected this, saying they have continued to allow access to walkers but have concerns about the legal implications of listing specific routes.
Local Fine Gael councillor Derek Mitchell claimed that the plan to remove the routes was a retrograde step and such routes needed to be developed and protected by the council. He said farmers previously had "a valid problem over insurance" but that had been dealt with by a recent Supreme Court decision which found landowners had no liability relating to recreational users on their lands. Independent councillor Christopher Fox, who is a member of the committee examining the routes, said the current listing would not work, and that Keep Ireland Open was trying to "impose routes on landowners, which is not the way forward".
IFA representative and farmer Tom Byrne said the main reason for farmers' opposition to the inclusion of the routes related to the imposition of "a legal burden" on their lands, while he claimed that some of the listed routes were incorrectly mapped.
He said landowners continued to allow access to walkers and had no intention of blocking access or charging walkers. "All we're asking for is for people to sit down and talk to us. We have no intention of closing down access to the countryside, and we don't want any financial gain out of it."