asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he will make arrangements for the installation of electricity in homes on Inishbofin, County Galway.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Island Electricity Supply.
40.
The extension of the electricity supply network from the mainland to Inishbofin would be prohibitively expensive and impracticable. The necessary submarine cable would cost about £200,000 but due to local conditions would be subject to frequent breakdowns.
The provision of generators on the island, together with the necessary local network, would cost about £34,000 or the equivalent of £700 per house if all the 47 householders were to take supply.
Householders in Inishbofin are in the same position as householders in isolated areas on the mainland where the cost of providing electricity is also prohibitive. Special arrangements have been made for Gaeltacht islands in pursuance of the national language policy but no special funds are available for provision of electricity to non-Gaeltacht islands.
In view of the fact that, according to the Minister's estimate, it would cost only £34,000 to provide a generator to give a supply to all the houses on Inishbofin would the Minister reconsider his decision especially in view of the fact that Roinn na Gaeltachta have helped in the provision of electricity on Gaeltacht islands? There seems little reason, in the minds of the islanders, why there should be discrimination against them because they are on the same coast and suffering the same conditions. Surely we should not be discriminating between one class of citizen and another.
The provision of electricity in all remote areas is done under the rural electrification scheme. Gaeltacht areas are subsidised in this regard by the Department of the Gaeltacht who give the necessary funds to provide electricity on Gaeltacht islands. Inishbofin is not a Gaeltacht island and cannot be considered except in the same context as people living in remote areas on the mainland.
Would the Minister extend that policy now to include all the islands that are inhabited because it does not make sense to any reasonable person that these islanders should be denied this facility when it is granted on other islands?
They are not being denied these facilities at all. People on non-Gaeltacht islands are in exactly the same position as people living in remote areas on the mainland, many of whom are asked for amounts in excess of £700 for the installation of electricity.
Do I take it from the Minister's reply that his Department have no plans for providing electricity for the non-Gaeltacht islands off our coast?
The Department have exactly the same plans for providing electricity for non-Gaeltacht islands as they have for providing electricity for remote areas on the mainland. There has been a subsidy there for that going back a number of years and, from memory, it has cost £17 million to date. This is coming to an end on the 31st March next year and I have asked the ESB to do a survey, which will take a couple of months because only the more remote areas are left, to find out how many people will at that stage be without electricity and what the cost would be of giving electricity to them. I think the cost would be prohibitive.
Does the Minister not consider, in view of the particular circumstances in which the islanders are living, that they are deserving of special consideration?
They are no different from people living in remote areas on the mainland whose circumstances are, perhaps, just as hard and who, except for the fact that there is not a sea barrier between them and the mainland, are living in remote and virtually inaccessible parts of the mainland.