Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ms Ní Shearcaigh has had the last word on that. The clear view of this committee is that rather than the islands being an afterthought in policy development, they should be to the forefront and become, as Mr. Ó Maoildhia said earlier, lighthouse projects. That was at the core of signing up our offshore islands to the island strategy that was being driven at EU level. I know that it was not exactly flavour of the month within the Department at the time but it is clear from the evidence that has been given that tremendous work is being done. There is an opportunity to build on that work and develop robust models on the islands that can then be replicated throughout the country to benefit not just Ireland as an individual electricity island and for those learnings to be shared with other islands off Portugal, and Spain and the smaller islands such as Cyprus and Malta, and to export clean green electricity to the European mainland thus helping to reduce our overall dependancy on imported energy from outside the EU.

I thank all the witnesses for their constructive and positive evidence. We look forward to further engagement with the Department as we complete our process of compiling a report on island communities. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.