Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 14 November 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Electoral (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2014: Discussion (Resumed)

11:00 am

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sure Ms Ní Fhlanghaile has. To take an extreme example, if the county of the Deputy beside me experienced an incredibly heavy snowfall prior to polling day, what would be done, in particular for older people?

There are significant "what ifs" nationwide. There is only a one in a million chance of not being able to get in, even if people had to resort to using a helicopter. It is like the rescue services in Connemara - one would be better off on the Aran Islands than where I live because the helicopter would be sent out in a jiffy. Gola Island has 25 people, Boffin has 67, Inishfree Upper has nine and Tory Island has 136. To my knowledge, the ones with the short polling day are Gola and Inishfree, although I am not sure about Boffin.

Clare Island has 115 people and Inishbiggle has 29. Getting boxes in and out of Inishbiggle is no problem. I went there once in a currach from the Achill side. It was a dangerous enough operation. We came out on the Ballycroy side, though. At very low tides, one can even walk to Ballycroy. It is sheltered, so there is no problem.

Inishturk has 50 people. It is offshore and has people travelling on a Friday. It has a football team, which is a great measure of whether there are young people. Inishmore has 629 people, Inishmaan has 158 and Inisheer has 202. These are very populous in relative terms and far offshore. They have regular evening ferries that are used by large numbers of people. The 5 p.m. ferry to each is highly populated, so it must stay open for the evening rush.

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