Sir, - As we, the people of Ireland, make our way home once again at the end of the national holiday season, is it not a good time to reflect on the question of access to our landscape? It is likely that quite a few holidaymakers will have been denied access to landscape, beaches, cliff walks, woodlands, uplands and canal and river banks. Letters to this page over the year indicate that this is a growing issue.
Last month you carried a report on the Lough Muckno Estate in Co Monaghan which noted that Harringbrook Properties Ltd, which has leased the Estate, informed the Castleblayney Development Association that "as a private estate, public access will be maintained as it has been in the past, that is, by invitation only". This is an implied reference to property rights.
It is, however, well worth taking the trouble to read Article 43 of the Constitution relating to private property. The Article undoubtedly acknowledges the right to private ownership of external goods. However, it goes on to state that the exercise of these rights are to be regulated by the principles of social justice, and that the State may limit by law the exercise of the said rights in the interest of the common good.
I would urge all who are concerned about access to our landscape, whether it be Lough Muckno, Ugool Beach in Mayo, Three Castles Head in west Cork, The Old Head of Kinsale in south Cork, the Loughoreen Hills on the Hill of Howth, or the footpath between Navan and Slane in Co Meath, to read Article 43 carefully. Is it in the common good that the great majority of the population be deprived access to significant tracts of our natural and cultural landscape? Deciding what is and in the common good is a challenging task, but we certainly need to have a number of test cases based on this Article of the Constitution tried in the courts to establish the extent to which the qualifications may not alone protect access, but also might protect the very quality of our landscape.
Section 2 of Article 45, which deals with the ownership and control of the material resources of the community, might also be relevant as it too requires that the common good and the common detriment be taken into account.
Since Ireland does not have a strong network of established rights of way, recourse to our Constitution may well be the most effective solution to these difficult issues. It will be obvious to all that there is a considerable degree of urgency in initiating such court cases, as property may well be changing hands at high prices with the new owners being unaware of the fact that the Constitution may affect the degree of privacy that they may expect to enjoy in the future. - Yours, etc.,
Waterfall, Cork.