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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 5 Apr 1951

Vol. 125 No. 2

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Aran Islands and Rehabilitation Scheme.

asked the Minister for Agriculture whether it is intended that the Aran Islands will be included in the special land rehabilitation project for Connemara; and, if so, and in view of the primitive conditions under which the islanders are expected to live, whether he will give the islands priority under the project.

I cannot accept the Deputy's description of living conditions in Aran as primitive.

In view of the special problems arising in Connemara from the poor quality of the land, the inadequate acreage of most holdings and the lack of readily available alternative sources of employment, a comprehensive scheme of rehabilitation of this area was announced by me at the December meeting of the Galway County Committee of Agriculture. This scheme which will be supervised by an administrator who will have his headquarters in Galway is already under way and will operate throughout Connemara of which the Aran Islands are deemed to form a part.

Appropriate procedures will be adopted in each part of the area and in regard to Inismór, Inismeadon and Inishior works are in progress and grants have been paid in some 150 cases.

In connection with my statement as to the conditions in the Aran Islands, does the Minister not consider that conditions are primitive when transport communications are not available for these islands, when there was no fuel available for several months of the year and the fuel supplies are limited during the winter months?

These are not the circumstances which obtain in respect of the islands referred to. Last year, as a result of inclement weather on the mainland, it became the duty of the Government to provide a supply of high quality turf to the Aran people. I am informed that an ample quantity of turf was provided at £3 10s. 0d. a ton, the quality of which was better than any previously supplied to the islands. I know of no interruption of transport to these islands from the mainland which has not been put right in 24 hours owing to the ample subsidies which are being provided to keep the Dun Aengus going. I believe that a subsidy of £500 has already been made available to keep that boat going and steps are now being taken to ensure that, neither through incompetence nor malevolence, will that transport service be hereafter interfered with.

May I tell the Minister that he is completely misinformed with regard to the statement he made?

About what?

Is the Minister aware that the Dun Aengus was due to sail for Galway to bring in cattle for the fair after Easter and that the boat failed to sail owing to the fact that the day before the fair was a bank holiday and the Galway Steamship Company would not pay double wages to the crew, with the result that some of the finest cattle in the West are still left in the islands unsold?

Steps are being taken, over and above those already employed, to subsidise this boat, to as to ensure that neither incompetence nor malevolence will deprive the island of the transport which this Government is at present subsidising.

Is the Minister not aware that since he scrapped the £10 an acre reclamation scheme, assistance for the reclamation of land in the Connemara area has been available only to comparatively well-to-do people; that the general run of people who want to reclaim land on the mainland and in the Aran Islands have not been able to avail of grants for reclamation of land, and that any new departure in that respect may be attributed to the pending by-election?

All you ever gave them was the dole.

The Deputy appears to be unaware of the fact that prior to 1st January this year 150 schemes were carried out on the Aran Islands and the grants paid, and that further schemes are continuing to be carried out on the islands. If the Deputy wants information on that subject, I suggest that he should make one of his very rare expeditions in that general direction, and ask the people there and they will tell him.

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