Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I think there has been a misunderstanding in relation to the High Court judgment. It is obvious that county councils are entitled to have by-laws. We need to ask why the by-laws were introduced in the first place. They should not have been introduced. The effect of the by-laws was to divide the islanders from the rest of the county. We can keep saying the county council was right - clearly, it must be entitled to bring in by-laws - but I think it started from the wrong point in this instance. This should not have happened. It divided councillors from councillors and islanders from people in the rest of the county.

We still do not have a policy for the islands. None of this would have happened if such a policy had been in place. It is greatly lacking. This committee and the committee I chair both have roles in this regard. It is clear that we need to focus our efforts in this area.

The islanders have gone from emergency to emergency. We have gone to meetings to support them. It seems to me that they are not valued as stakeholders. They are not consulted until after the event. We have repeatedly asked for the islanders to be present at many of the crucial meetings we have attended, for example in respect of the air service, but the Department has flatly refused to enable this. The Department's position is that it is not the role of the islanders to be at those meetings. Many of the problems with the air and ferry services could have been avoided if the islanders had been included from the outset.

Reference has been made to the renewal of relationships that have broken down. That can only work based on a policy. These meetings are not important unless they based on policies that value island life and the provision of resources accordingly. Like Mr. Ó Cualáin, when I heard it being suggested that 40% can be added to the costs of projects on the islands, it immediately struck me that this must apply to all the people living on the islands. It seems to me that this aspect of the matter was not discussed at any stage before these by-laws were brought in. This should have happened in the interests of balance.