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

I am very concerned that the past ten years have seen very slow progress for the islands. The officials referenced the interdepartmental committee 23 years ago. It had very little influence on what happened subsequently. I worked on this document, which was the manifesto on the islands I wrote for the 1997 general election. I was the Minister responsible for most of the period from 1997 to 2011, with the exception of 18 months. I based it on getting things done. I looked at ways of getting things done. I stand on my record.

Let us look at some of the things because it is important we understand what has happened since - we will leave that to the officials to outline - what happened in that period and which is a better method of getting the job done. One of the greatest concerns of this country is that we have plans - ten-year plans and 20-year plans. Every three years we refresh the plans, but are we actually getting the job done anymore? When Ministers for Public Expenditure and Reform can no longer spend the money, I begin to tear my hair out.

When I became Minister of State with responsibility for the islands, there was not one ferry service going to any non-Gaeltacht island. Of course, there were also some Gaeltacht islands that also did not have a ferry service. In a short number of years, we rectified that situation and we had also dramatically changed the services on the Gaeltacht islands. For example, in the case of Árainn Mhór, Údarás na Gaeltachta ran the service. The service to Inis Mór, Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr had historically been run by CIÉ. It is funny to think about it now.

When I started working in the Department, there was a boat that used to leave Galway in the morning with cargo and passengers. The days of hitching the passenger wagon on the back of a goods train are long gone. It used to take a whole day to get out and back in again, meaning no islander could get to the mainland and back out again. We rapidly developed systems to get from Ros an Mhíl to the island to the point where there were two services a day.

We also introduced services for all the non-Gaeltacht islands, Sherkin, Whiddy, Bere, Long and Hare. We also did Inis Bigil which is a Gaeltacht island, and Inishbofin, Inishturk and Clare Island. They had private ferry services, but they had no State-subsidised ferry services. That was all done in about four or five years.

As I said, it was informed by one liners, just get the job done. We sanctioned €100 million into contract, the last one being the one for Inis Mór. That was €100 million worth of capital development on the islands, mainly on piers. A few years ago, I asked a question and I do not think any project in excess of €1 million has been sanctioned since.

We introduced the island car tax because many islanders need a car on the mainland and one on the island, and they do not have many roads on the islands. If one has a car that never leaves the island, one has only two or three miles of road to drive on. The biggest island, Inis Mór, has 5 or 6 miles or perhaps 10 km if one literally took a trip from Iaráirne all the way back to Bun Gabhla. That was a great help for the islanders. We also exempted them from the national car test, NCT, on the basis that it was very expensive to bring a car onto the mainland.

We introduced the social welfare allowance for islanders and it has been increased in recent years. We introduced the concept that there would be a special recognition that the cost of living is dearer for islanders. Old age pensioners, etc., received that. We progressed education as well. One of the big steps we took was that we brought the school number required down to eight at the time. That has now been brought down to nothing and I agree that two teachers are needed in any school. That is great and represents the progress that has been made in recent years. We also introduced a scholarship scheme that made the secondary schools viable. Without the students coming into the Gaeltacht schools, it would not be viable to run secondary schools on the islands and there would be a migration of island children because there would not be enough variation, etc.

I am a great believer in money being leverage and these are all things that could be done now. We do not need a big policy for doing them. There are other things that one needs to develop policy for, but by developing all of the policy together, one is going by the slowest legion. By just doing the things that need to be done and are obvious before one’s nose, one is getting the job done. The variation of what needs to be done on the different islands is very significant.

The other big thing we had was a very good fund in the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and one could effectively co-fund anything one wanted, effectively. I used that fund; for example, if I wanted something on the health front. One can see a very good example of this in Inis Oírr where there is an excellent health centre. Half of that was co-funded by the Department and the other half came from the HSE. The HSE was willing to go ahead with the health centre in Inishbofin which had planning permission except that the co-funding was pulled and it has been flapping around ever since trying to progress that project. I know that if the Department puts 50% on the table, it will suddenly grease the wheel.

During that period, there was a significant small works programme every year. It was not confined to roads, which are very important everywhere. Small piers were done as was work on coastal erosion, which is a constant challenge on islands. Any other small works that were needed were done. We funded up to 80% of community centres on Gaeltacht and non-Gaeltacht islands alike. We levelled the playing pitch for the non-Gaeltacht islands which had been totally neglected before.

I am saying this because I am utterly frustrated that after ten years we started writing a policy and after two years we still have not got the policy. In the meantime all sorts of new problems have arisen on the islands. We seem to have had many of the obvious things put on the back burner while we are waiting for someone to develop a policy and there are very urgent changes happening in the world. The other thing about the world that we are living in is that ten-year policies are all very fine but the world changes very rapidly. It changed very rapidly in 2008 and equally so two years ago. Policy has to be infinitely variable. For example five years ago remote working was not the opportunity it is now even though some of us were doing it. It was not commonly perceived to be the opportunity that it is now. Even in my time we had been looking at getting people to provide translation services from the Gaeltacht islands because we knew it could be done remotely. Now it is accepted that there are no great psychological barriers that seemed to be there at that time in getting some of these things done.

My question is what has happened, and what is new, in the ten years since 2011? How long will we have to wait by the time we get a very complex plan? Then there will be an implementation committee, or whatever. I am afraid that this Dáil will be over and we will not actually see on the ground what the islanders need to see which is radical changes in how services are provided because the world is changing so rapidly and we need to move forward.

I must also record here that we built an airstrip on Inishbofin. There are already aeroplanes sitting in Aerfort na Mine. It will cost about €600,000 a year, that is all, to fund this. That is not big money when one is providing basic front-line services to be able to fly people three days a week into Inishbofin, where they would come out from the island and would wind up in Aerfort na Mine, near Galway. They would then be able to go into the city, do their business and fly out in the evening and the plane would then bring anybody on the island back in to base. The cost is €600,000 and the airstrips are there. A fire engine would need to be purchased and a very rudimentary building would need to be provided and one is ready then to move. This is the finest airstrip on all of the islands but for some reason daisies and grass are growing on it and the cost of maintenance is significant. I do not know the reason for this. As the Department goes for tender now for the Aran Islands services, is it going to include Inishbofin as an option to find out what it would cost? My understanding is that the cost, including airport charges and running the whole set-up, would be about €600,000 a year. This might be put into the context of the total contract and the total cost of air services, not only the service but also Aerfort na Mine and the existing airport on the Aran Islands, and how much more that would be. I remind the witnesses that if it is advantageous for the Aran Islands, it is ten times more advantageous for an island that is much further from Galway than any of the Aran Islands are. Flying the longer distance is, therefore, always the greater advantage.

I hope that I do not sound too negative but I am very frustrated, not from a personal point of view but from that of the islanders because it seems, unfortunately, that things have not moved forward. I do not blame civil servants for that. They are not running the country. They are there to implement Government policy but if it is not implementing good policies then there is nothing that the civil servants can do about it if they are not given the money. They are not masters in their own house. We, the politicians, are and it is our role to be ultimately responsible to get the money to provide the services.

I will not say anything else except for one other comment. I welcome the partial reconstruction of what used to be the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. I am pleased that the islands have ended up being attached to the Department of Rural and Community Development, which makes sense. What I do not understand is the illogicality of not putting the Gaeltacht with it because two thirds of the islands - the Gaeltacht is a territorial concept - are in the Gaeltacht. When they were all in the one Department and the islands and the Gaeltacht were together, one could use the combined funds so it did not matter if the funding came out of a Gaeltacht fund or an island fund, with for example, sports fields. We completed many sports fields, incidentally. It is amazing how sports fields feature in ads. There is the one on Inishturk which we have all seen but probably do not realise where it is. It is a beautiful football pitch on the edge of the Atlantic in the most extraordinary place. We also did the one on Inis Mór. We put money into the one on Inis Oírr and we did playgrounds. Everything was done. We just did anything that needed to be done because we had the money and got on with it. There was one fund of money and we were not going to other Departments - we were just doing it. In cases like health and things like that we did have to co-fund.

Where are we? When do we get the plan? I keep hearing that €100 million was spent. I know that €100 million was spent but it was all sanctioned and approved ten years ago.