Farmers have gathered outside Leinster House to highlight concerns around compulsory purchase orders (CPOS) for the development of greenways.
Around 17 groups travelled to Dublin from Galway, Cork, Waterford and the Cooley Peninsula in Co Louth.
The protest was planned to coincide with a Joint Committee on Transport's discussion on greenways.
Denise Collins, spokesperson from 'Protect Cooley Peninsula' said they "oppose CPOs for greenways" as they are a "leisure project".
"We do not want our land that we worked on for years to be taken from us forcibly," she said.
Ms Collins said most people protesting are home, farm and landowners.
"They have built up their homes, their livelihoods in the Cooley peninsula for generations on end," she said.
"If this happens [the greenway], it will go through their gardens, their houses," she said.
"Small farms will be broken up - making them unviable."
Farmer John O'Reilly also travelled to Leinster House from the Cooley peninsula.
He said there are "plenty of places to walk up the mountains without tearing up land".
"We need all the land that we have," Mr O'Reilly said.
He worries about the effect a greenway could have on his land.
"It will spread it out," he said. "I have a brother that has a land on a greenway, and he can't keep fences right.
"People are pulling down the fences, his sheep have been out on the road," he said.
"It's just been a total disaster."
Fintan Smith, 18, said he also does not want the a greenway on the Cooley peninsula.
"A lot of the greenways are going through the fields," he said. "It can affect the crop rotation."
He raised the issue of people littering while using the greenway, adding that this can effect the animals living there.
"It didn't work out in Omeath, it's not going to work here," he said.
"We don't want it."
Oliver McManus is from the Sligo Leitrim Cavan and Fermanagh Greenways group, which also opposes CPOs for greenways
He said a 75km greenway between Sligo and Enniskillen is planned along a disused railway line.
"The railway line isn't actually owned by the State," he said.
"It was originally developed by the landlord, and it went into disuse in 1957."
He said at the time, the State decided not to purchase the railway line.
"It's unregistered land which has been used by local farmers," he said. "The majority of it is farmland."
He is worried that Transport Infrastructure Ireland "will effectively confiscate the land from us".
Mr McManus said the greenway is expected "to go to planning" in the second half of next year.
He said 46% of the recent feedback on the greenway was negative, and the "vast majority of property owners are not in favour of relinquishing their land".
The Joint Committee on Transport heard contributions from the Irish Farmers' Association, the National Greenway Action Association, Déise Greenway Group and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.
'Serious implications'
The Irish Farmers' Association's South Leinster Chair Paul O'Brien said greenway projects have "serious implications" for farm families.
He said the IFA is "totally opposed" to the use of CPOs for Greenway projects.
"The IFA's position is clear and constant, greenways should wherever possible be developed on public lands and not on privately owned farm land," he said.
"Many proposed greenway routes are being planned across privately owned farmland," he said.
"This approach is deeply problematic and is causing signicant anxiety and hardship for farm families whose livelihood depends on those lands."
He also highlighted that lands across old railway lines have been "incorporated into private holdings for decades".
"They are essential to the day-to-day operation of family farms and cannot simply be reclaimed without causing major disruption and loss," he said.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland's (TII) Lorcan O'Connor said the preferred method to acquire land is "by way of voluntary agreements".
"However, compulsary purchase mechanisms are allowed, allbeit as a last resort to ensure the delivery of a continuous route," he said.
He said when efforts to arrive at a mutually agreable solution fail, a CPO "may need to be considered".
Mr O'Connor said TII's National Cycling Network proposed around 3,500km of cycle network in Ireland.
