Ms Cathy Ní Ghoill:

There are a few questions, first of all, Deputy Ó Cuív raised, cur sé ceist faoi na naíonra and the free childcare scheme, which in my humble opinion is the worst thing that ever was brought in in the island context. It comes back to having a nationwide policy but it is not relevant to the islands. The reason I say that is, the population base is not there. The free childcare scheme is based on per capitaso our organisation on Inis Mór runs the childcare facility. Every year the parents are fund-raising. The income does not meet the expenditure because we might have six kids, we might have five. If we have ten, we can cover it, if any child falls out then we are down again and running table quizzes to keep in going. That is the reality. So it does not work in an island context, and in a lot of rural areas such as Bencorr and areas of Connemara they have the same issue. They do not have 50 kids. It is not going to be money-making. So this issue needs to be looked at in the island context.

Cur Marc Ó Cathasaigh ceist faoi oideachas. There are five secondary schools on the islands of Ireland. As it happens they are all in Gaeltacht areas. Obtaining teachers is the difficulty, first of all actually getting the teachers and, second, to get them líofa i nGaeilge to be able to teach the subject in Irish. There is a huge shortage of Irish speaking teachers in different subjects. Going back some years Deputy Ó Cuív might remember there was a scheme where there was an additional allowance for gardaí, teachers and perhaps nurses, to live and work on the islands. That made a huge difference. In the school in Inis Mór one might have a teacher who has ten hours, and has another ten on the mainland, but that teacher will have to pay accommodation in two places, plus the cost of coming in. If that allowance was brought back it would make a huge difference to the schools. It is not a huge amount of money. It is a tiny drop in what the national budget would be, but it would make a huge difference in getting teachers back to the islands.

Deputy Kerrane asked about population decline. This is a huge issue. During Covid-19 everyone came running home, as many as could, and loved it. We had a certain freedom on the islands to a point and we could move around possibly more. The issue is keeping them. Now they are moving away again because the connectivity is not there, the broadband is not there. There is also the issue of housing as Ms Moran described. They cannot get houses if they want to leave home. Coming home, they do not want to live with their parents again. There are all these issues. So they came home but how do we keep them? The services are not there.

Derelict houses are a huge issue. At breakfast Ms Uí Mhaoláin and I discussed this and said we should do a profiling on these questions in regard to the islands, and do a study of how many derelict houses are on each island. There are many. It is a planning issue. Back in the 1970s and 1980s the local authority for Galway felt bungalow bliss was the way to go on the Aran islands which was such a pity. There were beautiful two-storey traditional houses in many of the villages. People were not allowed to build a two-storey house. It is back to consultation on what works in an area, and consultation with locals. If the scheme was brought back, in Roinn na Gaeltachta it was called the fuinneoga agus doirse. There was funding available to do up old houses and I availed of it personally. We had an old house and it was an excellent incentive, because it is expensive. There is no comparison between the hassle of renovating an old house versus building a new one so there needs to be those incentives to restore houses traditional to the area. What would the budget be across the islands? It would be nothing, and yet it could change the landscape of the islands.

In regard to the ten-year policy plan and have we been heard, when we see the draft I will answer the Deputy's question on that one.