Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 January 2022
13. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the up-to-date position regarding the provision of an improved landing facility on An Blascaod Mór; the progress he hopes to achieve in 2022 in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2553/22]
View answerThis question concerns the landing facility - or the lack of an adequate one - for An Blascaod Mór. It is a very important and popular heritage location and tourist attraction. I ask the OPW prioritises improving the landing facility on that important island.
An Blascaod Mór is a nationally and internationally significant heritage site due to the important literary and cultural output of this tiny community in the first half of the 20th century and the substantial collection of books – nearly 100 in all – that have been written about life on the Blasket Islands in the past century. An Blascaod Mór is also part of the Blasket Islands special area of conservation with the highest level of environmental protection. The State purchased the majority of the holdings on the island in 2009 and the OPW has restored a number of the houses on the island since then. Ionad an Bhlascaoid, located on the mainland at Dún Chaoin, was built in 1993 as a cultural centre to present and interpret the extraordinary cultural and literary heritage of the Blasket Islands to visitors. It is being substantially upgraded at present by the OPW with support from Fáilte Ireland as a flagship visitor destination on the Wild Atlantic Way and will reopen in the coming months.
Improved landing facilities, whereby boats could embark and disembark passengers directly to the island, are desirable for two reasons. The first is safety while the other is that this will be an essential element in the sustainable management of the island from a heritage, tourism and environmental point of view. While ferry services are confined to licensed vessels with specific tender permits, it is not currently possible to manage access and visitor numbers to achieve a balance between sustainable tourism access and maintaining the fragile environmental balance of the island. It is the advice to OPW from Kerry County Council that it is necessary to secure fresh planning permission for a pier at An Blascaod Mór, given that there have been significant changes in the designated status of the island and in environmental regulations in the period since the original permission was granted to Kerry County Council in 2003. This will necessitate updated environmental and other reports to support such an application, as well as the preparation of a detailed updated design for the project.
In 2022, the OPW intends to engage with the relevant stakeholders to consider the key challenges in undertaking this project and to develop a strategic working group to advance the development of the project. It is anticipated that the OPW will commission updated reports to inform the development of a coherent solution to the development of landing facilities on the island. Additionally, efforts will continue to secure capital funding for the project through the relevant agencies and Departments.
I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I know he is no stranger to that part of the world and spent time there learning the Irish language many years ago. More recently, he was with me in Dún Chaoin and helped resolve a matter relating to the local playground site. The island is not far from where we were in September 2021. I invite the Minister of State to come down and take the trip across later this year if he can and ideally stay the night on the island, which is a wonderful experience. It is important to see the lack of facilities on the island and in particular, the danger for people trying to disembark and board vessels on the island. It is dangerous and needs to be improved. When I was working with the former Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht , Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, as his parliamentary assistant back in the mid-2000s, I recall this issue being on his desk and the Minister trying to progress it. It has been an issue for a long time and needs to be addressed finally.
I get many invitations, but the Deputy's invitation to spend a night with him on the Blasket Islands is a unique one. I probably cannot resist it, to be fair. I know that part of the world well.
I visited recently and there is a great community there. The Office of Public Works was delighted to be able to sort out the issue with the playground with the local community. I thank Deputy Griffin for facilitating that meeting. I was there previously ag foghlaim na Gaeilge. I commit to going down again as soon as the weather permits to see the conditions. It is a long time since I was on the island as a student. I would like an opportunity to return to see the conditions for myself. It is a place the OPW holds dear. We welcome the opportunity to be able to invest with the local community because it is an important part of our heritage.
I thank the Minister of State. It is a very important part of our heritage. Unfortunately, the State failed to keep island life alive but we want to keep the stories and traditions and the brilliant heritage there alive. To do so, we need to be able to make the island accessible to people. One of the first books I read, when I was eight or nine years of age, was the English translation of Fiche Bliain ag Fás. Marvellous literature has come from the island. People such as the great Micheál de Mórdha have done great work keeping all of the heritage and literary history alive. It is nothing unless people can immerse themselves on the island and experience being on the island. The OPW has done marvellous work on restoring some of the cottages on the island but we really need to be able to open it up to the world and bring people from all over Ireland and all over the world to see it and to do so safely.
We are looking forward to reopening the centre on the mainland. Deputy Griffin is right. We also want to be able to reach out to the diaspora from the island who emigrated to North America, in particular to Springfield in Connecticut where many people from the island settled. We want to allow people to see where their people came from and from where they were evacuated to the mainland because of safety concerns of the Government at the time. Many of them emigrated to the United States and beyond. If we want them to be able to go back to find their roots, we have to be able to disembark them safely. This is a process on which we will engage with Kerry County Council. It will take time and we will walk through it with the local community and stakeholders. We will do it sensitive to the fact this is a special place not only to the people of Kerry but the people of Ireland.
