Ms Aisling Moran:

I appreciate the Deputy raising all those matters. I will start with housing and I agree wholeheartedly with what Deputy Ó Cuív has said. Everybody on the island looking to build or move has a housing need and we have a position where people are living with gracious family members. There is nowhere else for them to live, however, and sometimes they are being told there is no housing need because they are living with brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers or cousins. It is not sustainable or acceptable in the long term. If people want to have their own home and can do it, they have a housing need.

One of the biggest issues we see is people being on the local authority housing list but if there is no housing on the island, they are offered houses on the mainland. We mentioned in our opening statement that islands are finite resources. We see all the planning going into trying to make islands sustainable so when something like this happens, the Government policy seems to be driving people off the island. People might be given the option of a house but they cannot have it on the island and it is on the mainland. That does not do anything to sustain our population. If somebody is an islander, is on the local housing list and wishes to live on the island, a house on the island should be offered to that person.

There is definitely a need for an affordable housing system within the islands. We need all sorts of people living on the islands and we must also be cognisant of the fact that the price of housing on the islands has been driven up due to the demands of society. We need a system of affordable housing on the islands where we have hard-working people who want to stay on the islands and would be willing to build or buy houses. There is a definite need in that regard.

We cannot say what the report or surveys will bring over the next couple of months but we are very hopeful that research will be weighted. It has gone through an ethics board. As the Deputy has said, we as Comhdháil na hÉireann recognise that these are solutions but there will be academics indicating the problems and survey findings, and we are very hopeful that we will be able to make real requests based on what people want on the island and the research has proven. We hope to bring that to the Government so it can formulate policy. We hope the committee can look at that and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has already said she will look at it. We hope the housing Department will also consider the matter.

Mr. Murray might speak to the fund and Mr. Walsh might speak to the energy question. Again, I agree with the Deputy's comments on broadband and some of my colleagues might want to speak to it. Fibre-optic broadband must go to our islands or otherwise by the time we get the radio signal, we will be behind already. That is what is happening. The Deputy is 100% correct that the national broadband plan contains no obligation to bring fibre to the islands and it is not part of the deal. We need a way to get that fibre to our islands. By the time the radio signal gets to our island goes around all the houses, we will be so far behind the mainland we will be back before the committee in five or ten years saying that our broadband is not up to scratch in comparison with the mainland. If we are going to do it now, let us do it right and in a manner that will keep us in line with the mainland. That is just common sense from our perspective as islanders.

Mr. Murray and Mr. Walsh might speak to the other topics or even those on which I have commented.