Ms M?ire U? Mhaol?in:

I thank the committee for inviting us. It is a great opportunity. It is fantastic that the meeting is on one of the Irish islands.

On the point about underoccupied houses, I think there would be a huge opposition to that on the islands. Land and homes belong to the family and the extended family, which is very important. They often go to extended family. An island person would never think of selling their home. It just would not happen but, unfortunately, that is the way it is.

AHBs for islands is a really good idea. We will talk to Údarás na Gaeltachta about it getting involved in that, but there would still be an issue with the non-Gaeltacht islands. It might be something that could be piloted with the údarás and then extended in some way.

The problem with security of tenure and renting is that often there are no contracts in place. The islanders are a bit slow to introduce documents into an arrangement. I think everyone will understand that. That can be a huge issue.

The big issue with planning is the willingness of local authorities to engage. We could do with the assistance of the committee members, as the Legislature of the country, to look at how local authorities engage with local people. Surely there is a time when the environment is extremely important.

Nobody values the environment as much as islanders do. On the Aran Islands, everything we see is man-made. Diversity and the caretaking of the land is what makes them special and, therefore, people are a crucial point in that. We have to take care of our population or, otherwise, there will be a wilderness and that is not good for diversity either.