Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I just got kicked out of the system for a moment but tá mé ar ais. Tá brón orm. Tá náire orm nach raibh siad compordach Gaeilge a labhairt sa choiste. Tá céad míle fáilte rompu Gaeilge a labhairt sa choiste seo. Mura bhfuil daoine in ann í a thuiscint, is é a bhfadhb é agus níl sé sin fadhb na bhfinnéithe. Tá sé grá mór agam do na hoileáin. D’fhás mé suas cóngarach d’Inis Oírr. Chuaigh mé ann le mo chlann ó bhí mé an-óg, cé go raibh m’athair i gcónaí tinn ag dul trasna na dtonnta. I have a big grá for the islands. It is funny because a few years ago I said to myself I could not keep going to Inis Oírr and Inis Mór the whole time because there are loads of islands. I have been to a new island every year for the past ten years and I love them all. I must admit, however, that I have a particular soft spot for the ones with the Irish. Is cuma faoi sin.

There is something very special about island life and it saddens me to hear the witnesses express such major concerns. I have a few questions for the them as they know more than me about the whole issue. It is great that an organisation was set up in 2006, I believe, for all the islands to give them a stronger voice. The islanders are in a unique situation which I can relate to in some ways. I live in the middle of nowhere, 5 km from a shop in a very small village with one pub. There are similar issues with rural challenges and looking for support and grants, which communities with small populations find hard to get. I can relate to the issues in some ways. I find also that any time I go to the islands and speak Irish people are always welcome my use of Irish, which helps me to keep it going.

I remember meeting Dara Molloy some years ago at a sustainability conference. I was always curious about the islands, which are such an amazing asset to us when it comes to sustainability, for example. Everything the island needs must come in by boat. It is so much easier to track this than it is to track trucks coming in and out of villages and towns all over Ireland. Is mór an luach iad. The islanders are of great value to us when we look at climate challenges and all the other issues we are facing. It is a wonder we are not doing much more work with the islands to see how we can make people more sustainable because the islands are where it starts and finishes.

Do the witnesses engage with the local development community? There should be community development workers working with the islands to find out what islanders need and then reaching out to politicians like us to see if we can help to get it. Maybe the islanders have been doing this for years. I was involved in getting the number of boats increased for Clare Island, for example. That lovely man, Mr. Murray, mentioned the costs of materials. Islanders are very resilient. Many things can be done on the islands. I am not sure about rainwater harvesting, for example, or how islanders manage their waste. I am aware that in general everything has to be shipped off the islands, unless there is composting.

I am not sure whether Airbnb is an issue on the islands. It is an issue where I live and I am trying to get something done about it. There are rent pressure zones in Dublin and Cork but they do not seem to recognise that rents are an issue in other places. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, is working hard and investing more money in doing up old houses. I have a document on all of the grants that are available for doing up old houses and farm buildings. I will happily email this to one or all of the witnesses if they want. I was also wondering about broadband. How do we get people to live on an island if there is no broadband. What are the challenges with that? Can we expedite broadband connection as a priority to stop the decline of the island population? In rural areas we saw some increase in population, but mainly where we had digital hubs or good broadband.

I do not know if the witnesses have engaged with the Minister of State with responsibility for community development, Deputy Joe O'Brien. It seems to me that these are all community issues. The island is a community of people and all the issues should come under one umbrella because islanders cannot keep going to every Department about every different issue all of the time, as that is difficult. Maybe community development is the overall area and perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, or both of them, need to take on this issue.

It saddens me that we could possibly lose populations from islands. Now more than ever, people want places and spaces, which is what islands offer. They offer peace, tranquillity and good mental health if they are vibrant islands. We are missing a trick if we are not saving and supporting our islands.

There is a great system to enable teenagers to go out to the islands. My friend's son loved it so much he went back for three years instead of one year for his transition year. Tá Gaeilge fhlúirseach aige. He came back with a great love for Irish that he never had before, thanks to going to the islands.

The witnesses might think I am mad but on the issue of materials, is anything being done about hempcrete, which is a huge winner. We have been growing hemp in west Clare on poor quality land similar to the land on many of the islands.

Hemp has been used for plastering and hempcrete, where one mixes bags of cement with hemp. There seem to be major opportunities for us to use the islands as a place to trial what we need to do all over Ireland. I would love to work with the witnesses more on this point.

Regarding bulk buying of photovoltaics, we started a community group called the Clare Community Energy Agency. Using grants, we bought photovoltaic cells in bulk for many houses. If 25 houses wanted them, we would ask for the best price. It does that kind of work. Are those initiatives happening on the islands as well?

I should stop talking now, as I could talk about the islands forever.