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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 25 Nov 1998

Vol. 497 No. 3

Other Questions. - Offshore Islands.

Jim O'Keeffe

Ceist:

20 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands the number of people permanently resident on our islands; and the proposals, if any, she has to encourage an increase in those numbers. [24468/98]

With regard to the number of people permanently resident on our islands, I refer the Deputy to pages 128 and 129 of "Census 96 Population Classified by Area", Volume 1.

I am in the process of implementing an action plan to address the needs of our islands as promised in An Action Programme for the Millennium. Earlier this year I announced assistance of almost £2 million towards various minor works on islands. This programme of works is being carried out in partnership with local authorities. Access to the mainland was one of the main issues raised with me on the various occasions I met island communities and their representatives. Since I was given responsibility for the offshore islands I have provided significant funding for access, including more than £1.7 million towards the inhabited islands off the coast of County Cork and for the first time ferry services servicing Inishbofin, Inishturk and Clare Island have been subsidised.

Through the Interdepartmental Committee on the Islands, the Gaeltacht and the Irish Language, the implementation of Government policy on offshore islands is co-ordinated to ensure it is implemented in an effective manner. As chairman of this committee I will continue to endeavour to ensure equal access to services such as health, education, water, roads, electricity, refuse collection etc., for our island communities. The provision of essential services and the promotion of economic and social development on the islands are vital in securing the future of our offshore islands. As the Deputy is no doubt aware, I obtained an increase of 52 per cent in funding for the offshore islands in the Estimates recently announced. This funding will assist me in continuing the work which I have already outlined.

I hope the Minister of State accepts that this is a non-adversarial question. I accept his bona fides and those of his predecessor, Deputy Carey, as their hearts are in the right place in terms of the islands. It would have been helpful if the Minister had provided population statistics. We should try to turn the tide in order to increase those numbers and there has been a marginal increase in some. Is there a recognition of the additional expense of living on the islands? Does the Minister of State agree there should be measures to try to deal with that?

I recall him raising the question of an islander's allowance when he was in Opposition. What is the current position or has that been forgotten? Have comparisons been made with island communities in other parts of the world to determine what efforts have been made to revive them and increase their populations? Regarding telematics, has consideration been given to making islands more attractive in terms of people coming to live on them on the basis that they can do their business working out of remote, peripheral locations and have a good quality of life?

The population statistics will be provided in a written reply. They show a stabilisation of population on the islands between 1991 and 1996 and I cannot claim credit for that. That is a hopeful trend.

Good news for me.

Much of it occurred before the Deputy's time.

Who would want to claim credit for it?

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.

The Minister of State's heart is in the right place and I encourage him to continue his work. However, as a result of measures taken by him and others the island population has been stabilised. Should targets be set to increase the population? Will the Minister of State consider a White Paper as the next logical step to be taken?

I am reluctant to hold the matter up by considering a White Paper. Many people, particularly in peripheral areas, would say that if plans or White Papers, etc, would solve their problems, they would have been solved 50 years ago. We have a simple, effective work programme. The islanders in the Deputy's constituency will tell him that we have been very aggressive about delivering what they need on the ground. When I run out of things to do with all the money I have been given — there has been a huge increase this year — that will be the time to think about a White Paper. We are a long way from that. There is a heavy agenda of work on which we should concentrate. Aside from the work we are doing, I do not know if the Deputy is suggesting that we give out Viagra on the islands to people for free to try to increase the population.

Put it to the Cabinet.

Does the Minister of State favour that?

The Minister of State said he would come up with an idea.

Is that part of the islander's allowance?

The Minister of State will feature on "Quotes of the Week".

We are putting comprehensive programmes in place on the islands, which are encouraging an increase in population.

Is the Minister trying to choke the chicken?

Is she in favour of Viagra?

The most important issue for us is to ensure that young people have an opportunity to live a full life, come and go from the islands at will and get as much of their education as possible on them. That is where our efforts should be concentrated.

The Minister of State referred to bonding on Inisheer. How is it possible to manage bonding in terms of education with 0.4 of a teacher? Of course, I agree with him in terms of providing the leaving certificate. We have had a léacht beag which could be summarised in the phrase "do not hold me back now", but it would require more than less than half a teacher to implement the leaving certificate cycle on an island school.

The Deputy has raised a legitimate concern. As he is aware, the school on Inisheer is a VEC school, and island schools have traditionally been allocated under the normal system through the VEC, the same as on the mainland — this was true when Deputy Higgins was the Minister. However, I recognise there is a difficulty because of the continuing small numbers on the island——

The Minister will not need a White Paper for that.

——and as a consequence I have already raised this issue, the Deputy will be happy to hear, through the interdepartmental committee with the Department of Education and Science. I have asked it to consider the difficulties on the islands when applying mainland criteria for the provision of teachers. When I met representatives of island schools I explained this was what we were doing. We tried to get the best possible for this year under the old regime, which operated in Deputy Higgins's time as Minister, but in conjunction with the Department of Education of Science we will have to consider providing a special regime for the islands, because they will never have large pupil numbers but will still have to provide a wide curriculum. The Deputy's point is taken.

I am not interested in an tAire Stáit's self-promotional speeches or his survey of history. I was not the only Minister responsible for the Gaeltacht. The issue is whether the teachers will be appointed to enable the school to provide the leaving certificate.

The teachers have been appointed under the regime applied nationally by the Department of Education and Science but I accept that is not suitable in the island context. For that reason the coiste idir-Roinnthe is reviewing the position with a view to producing proposals to deal with that problem, but the problem had never even been dealt with——

If it was dealt with why do I have to deal with it now?

The Minister is just giving selfcongratulatory information.

We are dealing with the issue and it was not dealt with previously.

The Minister said the islander allowance was under active consideration in the Department and that there was no shortage of money. A couple of weeks ago the Department of Finance was unable to tell me the number of PAYE workers living on offshore islands because it would take an inordinate amount of time to calculate. In the active consideration being given to the islander allowance, is it proposed to give the allowance to all islanders whether paying PAYE or not, and will that emerge in next week's budget?

The Government of which Deputy Kenny was part had a bad experience on this point. The Deputy knows one is not allowed to reveal budget secrets in advance, so he will have to wait. I am not going to risk my job in that way.

Deputy Hogan found that out.

The Deputy should be patient, the issue is under consideration. What I proposed in Opposition was an islander tax allowance which would be available to a taxpayer, and an islander social welfare allowance.

That was already there.

Those proposals are under consideration. The Deputy will have to wait to see whether we will be in a position to make further proposals at budget time.

What figure was proposed for the tax and social welfare allowances?

A figure was not mentioned.

I seem to remember £3,000.

Glacaim le ról an Aire i saol na n-oileán agus an méid atá ráite aige, agus tá taithí agam mar mhúinteoir Gaeilge i gCléire, i gcoláistí samhraidh agus áiteanna eile. An aithníonn sé an tábhacht a bhaineann le dúlra na n-oileán chomh maith leis an saol sóisialta a fhorbairt? An bhfuil ceachtanna, meas sé, le foghlaim ón a leithéid agus iar-cheannaire Fhianna Fáil maidir le Inis Mhic Aoláin agus le Reachrainn i mo dháilcheantar féin — nuair atá oileán i seilbh daoine áirithe gur mian leo an taobh sin de shaol an oileáin a fhorbairt chomh maith? An bhfuil sé mar chuid den job atá aige an dúlra agus mar sin de a chaomhnú?

Mar Aire Stáit do na hOileáin tá freagracht orm, maidir leis na hoileáin, go bhfuil buan-chónaí orthu, agus go ngearrann an taoile iad ón mórthír chuile lá. Sin an tsainmhíniú atá ag na na h-oileáin atá mé ag plé leo mar Aire do na hOileáin. Ar ndóigh, tárlaíonn sé do chuid mhaith de na hoileáin, go mór mhór Oileáin Árainn agus oileáin eile, go bhfuil tábhacht faoi leith leo ó thaobh an oidhreacht nádúrtha. Tagann sin faoi chuid eile den Roinn, Dúchas. Mar Aire Stáit leis an Aire sinsíreach, bíonn muid ag plé de shíor leis le na ceisteanna sin. Is dóigh liom gurb é an dearcadh a bheadh agamsa i dtaobh na ceiste sin gurb é an rud atáimid ag iarraidh a dhéanamh ná cothromas a bheith ann idir tábhacht an oidhreacht nádúrtha agus tábhacht an oidhreacht cultúrtha agus saibhreas an phobail atá ar na hoileán seo. Ní ligfear do cheann, mas féidir, dochar a dhéanamh do cheann eile. Creidimid go traidisiúnta gur mhair an dá cheann le chéile go maith — sé sin, go raibh nós ag na hoileánaigh meas a bheith acu ar an dúlra timpeall orthu agus nach raibh sé mar nós acu dochar a dhéanamh dó. Go mba fada buan go mbeadh sé mar sin.

The Minister mentioned developing the economy and encouraging employment on the islands. Does he agree tourism has a large role to play in this respect, and does he have a view on Galway County Council's proposal to impose a tourism tax on people visiting the Aran Islands?

I join in Deputy Timmins question. In none of the Minister of State's replies on the islands did he mention Comhdháil Oileán na hÉireann, the federation of the islands, or the worthiness of its promotional work. Does he have proposals for the federation or has it been further demoted?

To answer the last question first, I assure the Deputy that I maintain continuous contact with Comhdháil Oileán na hÉireann and the various bodies working on individual islands. That has been crucial to our work to make the islands participants in what they are doing for themselves. As he is aware, we are actively considering proposals to give islanders more control over island affairs. That goes back to what I said about employment — as far as possible, islanders should be employed and benefit from island money.

In response to Deputy Timmins, the genesis for Galway County Council's proposal of a £1 tax was from the islanders themselves — it was part of a system they proposed to fund a worthy recycling project. In conjunction with Comhdháil Oileáin na hÉireann I am willing to look with a totally open mind at the manner of financing islands, collecting revenue on them, and self-development. It amazes me that most of the criticism of this man came from outside Inis Mór, because the plan was promoted by the people of the island as a way of solving a problem and of providing an important service. Before people rush to judgment they should talk to Comhcumann Inis Mór, Galway County Council and the Department about what the islanders think about this proposal, because if it did frighten away the tourists it is the islanders who would lose. Many people would be surprised by the answer.

We must look at sustainable tourism development on the islands, because we will not maintain them unless there is balanced development. We must attract tourists who are likely to stay and must increase bed nights on the island. Anyone who knows the islands knows it is good that money has been provided to Inis Mór to look at sustainable tourism. It has had bigger numbers than any other island, but it has been argued that the islanders themselves have not benefited pro rata from that increase in numbers over the years.

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