I congratulate the Minister of State with responsibility for western development and rural renewal, Deputy Carey, on the manner in which he has tackled the neglect of island communities off our coastline to whom mere lip service has been paid since the foundation of the State. The rigours of living on an island are not understood by many people. I come from a constituency that has seven of the 21 islands and I know only too well that those island people have suffered. I have seen a strong virile population on those islands 30 or 40 years ago dwindle to a very small group. The islands are part and parcel of our culture and history, so much so that a former Taoiseach saw fit to buy an island off the Kerry coast. That island is not mentioned in the report. Perhaps he restored that island to its former glory and it does not need any State assistance.
Report on Island Development: Statements (Resumed).
I thought that sword had been put back into its scabbard some time ago.
I am only paying tribute to the man who had the foresight to put his money where his mouth was. He bought that island for his retirement in order to escape the pressures on the mainland. If there are pressures on the mainland today there are also pressures on the islands off our coastline.
I was thrilled when the Taoiseach appointed Deputy Donal Carey as Minister of State for western development and rural renewal with special responsibility for islands. On two occasions, in the past four months, I accompanied the Minister of State, Deputy Carey, when he visited Oileán Cléire and Bere Island in Bantry Bay, off Castletownbere and conveyed to islanders the clear message that he was prepared to tackle the problem. I firmly believe work begun is half done. There is no point in former Ministers of previous governments paying lip service to the islanders.
Seven of the islands to which I referred are off the south-west coast, seven more are off the west Mayo coast, four off the Donegal coast and three are off the Clare-Galway coast — a total of 21 islands. Cork County Council saw fit four years ago to form an island's committee, a subcommittee of the Cork County Council. Eleven representatives from the Schull and Skibbereen electoral areas together with representatives from the various bodies on the seven islands concerned, meet periodically to discuss the difficulties under which island people are labouring.
We have an efficient county manager. Noel Dillon, who has worked extremely hard on the island committee and who puts his money where his mouth is. He will ensure that Cork County Council plays its part in providing the financial contributions required to fund grants for islanders. It is clear that this island committee has worked effectively and efficiently. County councils in the west should follow Cork County Council's lead and formulate island policy in conjunction with the Minister, who has special responsibility for the islands.
This is the first time since the foundation of the State that a Government has given responsibility for island development to a particular Minister. I am proud that the Minister of State, Deputy Carey, was chosen to shoulder that responsibility. I have no doubt he will do an excellent job and will render an excellent account of his stewardship.
Life is not all roses on the islands. Wealthy Germans have bought many of the smaller islands and developed them into holiday havens for visitors from western Europe. Oileán Cléire lies approximately seven miles south of Baltimore, and from the day I was old enough to look out the window of my humble home in Goleen, I could see that island on the horizon. There has been a decline in the population on those islands and they have suffered from the neglect of successive Governments over the years who did not pay any attention to maintaining their populations. Some islands off the coastline suffered discrimination because the population was not Irish speaking. I hope that day is long gone.
I welcome the fact that the Minister of State, Deputy Carey, has responsibility for both the native and non-native speaking islands. It does not matter whether a person speaks English, French, Dutch, German, Greek or Russian, life on all islands is the same. The same problems exist on Irish speaking and English speaking islands off our coastline. Islanders endure the same hardships in getting their produce to the mainland, getting building materials to the islands and sending their children to schools on the mainland.
The Minister of State, Deputy Carey, and myself recently visited a school on Oileán Cléire and we were greatly impressed with the level of education being provided, the interest shown by the teachers and the good nature of the children. Those young boys and girls were full of life but they have a dismal future ahead of them unless the recommendations in this report are implemented.
The Minister of State allocated £1 million this year to the islands to upgrade access facilities. That is the beginning of what will, I hope, be improvements in the lives of people living on our islands. Access to and from the islands is of paramount importance and nobody should be in any doubt about the dangers involved in travelling to and from the mainland, frequently in substandard ferries or boats. Islanders live with such danger on a daily basis.
The cost of delivery of one tonne of lime to Beare Island, approximately five miles off the shoreline in Castletownbere, is £18. The delivery cost on the mainland for one tonne of lime is £11.70, a difference of £7.20 per tonne. It costs islanders an enormous amount of money to transport their cattle to the mainland, yet they get the same prices for those cattle at Skibbereen or Bandon mart as farmers from the mainland.
The Government must realise that living on an island is not easy. Transport costs can be exorbitant. It costs £600 to deliver a lorry load of readymix concrete to Beare Island whereas the same concrete is delivered on the mainland for £350. Therein lies the problem as far as the hardships of islanders is concerned.
Island national schools should have special school status and the minimum number of pupils required should be reduced from 25 to 14 to maintain teachers at such schools.
If we want to be realistic about developing the islands, we must take all these factors into account. Actions speak louder than words and we must do everything possible not only to maintain the present population on the islands but to increase it where possible. Our islands are rich in culture, nature and history. The islanders are not begging for money, only seeking their just entitlements. They must, and should, get the same facilities at the same price and rate as those on the mainland. That would entail the subsidisation of agricultural materials from the mainland to the islands concerned. It is unfair to ask the islanders to try to exist on frugal incomes from their farms without giving them the chance of obtaining products at the same price as their neighbours on the mainland.
There is also vast potential for the development of the fishing industry on the islands off our coasts. We also have energetic Comhdháil Oileán na hÉireann co-operatives in Inish Cléire which play their part in trying to make life easier for those living on the islands. There is a successful turbot farm in Óileann Cléire and the quality and condition of those fish are second to none. This industry could be extended to the other six islands off our south western coastline. The Oilean Cléire co-operative must be congratulated for the manner in which it has dealt with the development of the fish and agriculture industries on the island.
The cycle of decline among island communities is clearly illustrated in this report, which refers to high transport costs; reduced competitiveness; an increased cost of living; less opportunity for economic activity; less attractive as a place to live; outmigration, especially of the young; reduced demand for goods and services; a long-term population decline; an ageing population and a lower birth rate. This sums up the serious situation that successive Governments allowed to continue through the years, until the Government saw fit to appoint a Minister to investigate and arrest the decline of our island populations.
Cork County Council and Donegal County Council have made headlines in setting up island committees — I do not know if Galway County Council has an island committee. If they want to arrest the decline of population and life in rural Ireland and our islands, these county councils must play their part in island committees, draw up a plan and submit it to the Minister, who is ready, willing and able to look after the islanders and maintain the population levels of our native islands, which has been neglected since the foundation of the State.
In recent years we have had a tendency to rewrite Irish history but this is the first time a Government report has attempted to rewrite our geography. Only west coast islands are marked in the map of Ireland in this report.
This Interdepartmental Co-ordinating Committee on Island Development is no mean body. It has representatives from the Departments of the Taoiseach; Agriculture, Food and Forestry; Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht; Defence and the Marine; Education; Enterprise and Employment; the Environment; Equality and Law Reform; Finance; Health, Social Welfare; Tourism and Trade — the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications have two representatives in this high powered group. We are fortunate to have the chairman of that committee, the Minister of State responsible for Western Development, Deputy Carey, here today. Indeed, he was highly praised by Deputy Sheehan.
However, Lambay and other islands off our east coast do not appear in this report. I can understand why some of these smaller islands do not appear but Lambay is populated. It is a private island owned by the Revelstoke family. I have had the privilege of visiting it and it is a beautiful spot with great potential. As a first step, a footnote about Lambay should be added to this report. The Minister of State might recognise someday that the whole world is not just the west coast; we have islands on the east coast.
For one family.
Lambay is a private island owned by the Revelstoke family but people live on it and work its farm. It has rare species in its wildlife preserve and it deserves to be mentioned in this report.
I praise the late Lord Revelstoke for the work he put — it was his life's work — into the gardens, farm and preservation of wildlife on the island.
It is self-sufficient.
It has great tourist potential, as it is near Dublin city, and as a nature reserve. People live on this island and it has a wildlife preserve. It also has tremendous potential for water sports and sailing.
Fingal County Council is concentrating on the potential of tourism and upgrading the environmental and amenity aspects of the region. When I was chairman of the old Dublin County Council we bought some regional parks. We are proud of our amenities, such as Malahide Castle, Newbridge House in Donabate and the magnificent regional parks between Skerries and Balbriggan. We took a forward looking approach towards providing amenities for the people of the region. Lambay Island has long-term potential as an amenity to be shared not only by the family that owns it but also by our population and our incoming tourists.
I ask the Minister, in his capacity as chairman of this co-ordinating committee, to enter into discussions with the family owning the island with a view toward greater co-ordination, for example, in the use of Rogerstown harbour, which is the private harbour used by the family on the mainland. The back of the harbour is used by the progressive Rush Sailing Club which is trying to improve its facilities for members and tourists. The Minister should discover for himself that there is a populated island off the east coast. It is particularly important that he enter into negotiations with the family as Lord Revelstoke recently passed away. The Minister of State should enter into negotiations with a view to examining the potential of Lambay for amenity use, for tourism, for its continued use as a wildlife preserve and for allowing it to be opened to the people of the Dublin region and to tourists, to see if it could be utilised for water sports and what use could be made of the island generally without damaging the present environment. It has tremendous potential and now is the appropriate time to consider it. I congratulate earlier speakers. It is obvious there is a need for a co-ordinating authority to meet the needs of islanders.
The report contains some lovely photographs in which the Minister of State looks well. They were supplied courtesy of An Post, Bord Fáilte, Shay Fennelly and Telecom Éireann. The Minister of State should look again at the list of islands and discover that the good Lord left us a little jewel called Lambay Island off Portrane where I was born. Like the previous speaker who looked out on an island from where he was reared, as a child I went to bed every night looking out at the island of Lambay.
I thank all those who made statements on the report published in recent weeks. While they all expressed contentious points of view, they were at the same time generous in their attitude to those who live on the islands.
In response to Deputy Burke, the only reason Lambay Island does not appear on the list is that it is our information that the people concerned do not live on the island 52 weeks of the year.
There are people living on the island permanently. The Minister of State should not delete it from the map.
We will make every effort to correct the matter in the next publication.
What about Garinish Island and Horse Island?
We worked with Comhdháil Oileáin na hÉireann which listed the islands it believed to be inhabited. There are omissions: Deputy McGinley adverted to Gola Island. None of these islands will lose out by not being mentioned in the report. We will be in touch with Comhdháil with a view to their inclusion.
Deputy Burke referred to the quality of the report. I thank all those associated with its production to a high standard in both Irish and English. The work was properly co-ordinated. That is a good start for the island population.
Deputy Ó Cuív was damning in his criticism of the report. It seems we are at cross purposes. The objective of the interdepartmental committee was to devise a framework for the future. The easiest and most efficient way to overcome problems of access is through the island committees established in the counties adjacent to the inhabited islands.
I am a member of an island committee.
The island committee in County Galway may be passive——
It is not; we must move on.
There will be no difficulties if that committee draws up its plan with the islanders whose agreement is required.
The Deputy should be constructive.
On a point of information——
The Deputy can speak privately to the Minister of State afterwards.
For the past two years the county council island committee has asked that Inishbofin harbour be dredged to allow boats come alongside the pier.
Acting Chairman
I cannot allow the Deputy to make a statement.
It cannot get what it is looking for.
When the Deputy's party was in Government it did nothing about it.
The Cork County Council island committee analysed all the problems in that county to which I travelled to meet the islanders with members of the council. The county manager has since forwarded his priority list which was agreed with the islanders. Each of the areas mentioned will receive its fair share of the money advanced by the Government. It will be substantial enough in the case of the Cork islands. One particular pier would have been closed were it not for this financial allocation. It will have a positive result.
Pontoon pier on Bere Island.
The results will be positive. Deputy Molloy criticised the report as being aspirational. Islanders need to have aspirations and to be positive about the future. There has been too much negative comment.
It was our intention initially to include in the report a photograph of the last people to leave the Blasket Islands, taken in the late 1940s or early 1950s which is on display in Dunquin. Because it was felt it would send the wrong message it was omitted.
We have tried to be positive. I am grateful to Deputies including Deputy Ó Cuív who believes his contribution is positive.
I want action.
I understand the point he made about social welfare and will take the matter up again with the interdepartmental committee.
The Minister of State had three years to do something about it.
I had, unfortunately, a shorter period in which to do something. I thank Deputy McGinley for the hospitality shown to me by the inhabitants of Arranmore Island and Tory Island which I visited in recent days. They made me aware of the points raised by Deputy Mary Coughlan and Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher. Deputy Coughlan focused on the emergency services being sought while Deputy Gallagher referred to the revision of the island fishing fleet. Deputy Gallagher referred to the island fishing fleet and the question of islanders having their own access to fishing. I accept they need grant aid to repair some of their small boats.
Deputy Hughes queried the publication of the report in Dublin. We would have liked to publish it on one of the islands, but Comhdháil Oileáin na hÉireann requested that it be published in Dublin. I was pleased with the number of people who attended its publication. If we influence those at the centre of power by introducing them to real islanders we will have made a good start.
Deputy Connaughton spoke about the role of the IDA and county enterprise boards who will play a part in the development of islands. The Leader group has drawn up development plans and we will urge the IDA and county enterprise boards to make a contribution. I will take up the matter of Coney Island, to which Deputy Nealon referred, with Comhdháil Oileáin na hÉireann.
I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Deenihan, for his compliments and I know his Department will ensure that Comhdháil draw up an effective plan for islands and that this development will progress apace. I was pleased to hear the Minister of State say that if the plans are effective the Leader group for the islands would qualify for additional funding. Deputy Sheehan highlighted the high cost of transport to and from islands. Housing is another difficulty. At a recent meeting on islands the Cork county manager spoke positively about his expectations for Bere Island. Many islanders want to own their own houses and are not enamoured with town housing. There are special grants for Gaeltacht islands, but I accept the point about the cost of sites. This matter could be discussed at island committee meetings and county managers could buy subsidised sites. Perhaps a subsidy will be provided from the finance envelope.