We have tried to deal with a number of issues. One of the first issues with which I was concerned was bonding between adults and children. If children are taken off the islands at the age of 12 and sent to boarding schools with no opportunity to get home at weekends, the bond between them, the island and their homes is immediately broken. As the Deputy is aware with regard to Sherkin Island, new arrangements were made to facilitate children going to school in the morning and coming home in the evening so that people would not have to leave the island to provide secondary education for their children.
For example, I am currently looking at Inismaan where there is a new arrangement. Pupils travel to Inisheer on a five day basis but I am trying to improve this. Subsidised weekend services have been arranged for the first time for Inishturk, Inishbofin and Clare Island, which are guaranteed throughout the winter months to ensure children can get home at weekends. My proposal involves five rather than seven day boarding. The schooling available on Inisheer has been extended to include the leaving certificate.
The next issue to be dealt with was physical access and for that reason I did not include the piers in Cork. Eight small islands do not have an electricity supply and I hope to deal with that matter in the near future. The Deputy referred to cost of living and I assure him that the islander's allowance is under very active consideration. We are also looking at transport within the islands in terms of the cost of maintaining cars, new regulations relating to DOE and the cost of tax and insurance of cars on the islands. We do not want untaxed or uninsured cars but paying mainland rates poses difficulties.
With regard to business on the islands, I wanted to make access in and out possible in terms of services. However, we must move on to provide employment. Telecom Éireann is providing ISDN lines on some islands. That is to be welcomed as it is a huge step forward. Until now many services on islands, funded with money from the islanders, were provided from the mainland. I was thrilled when I visited Inishbofin and many other islands to find that 17 people had been given continuous infrastructural work this year, which was traditionally done by bringing people in from the mainland. It has proved a major boon on the islands. Even on that level significant employment has been generated by asking local authorities, which have been most co-operative, to provide work as far as possible for the labour force on the islands with our funds. This has provided a considerable economic boost on the islands. There is a great deal to be done but if we continue in this direction, there will be a population increase. I do not know whether the Deputy has other suggestions but I would be interested in them.