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

The issue I raised was that on the Gaeltacht islands the co-operatives, which are called comharchumainn on the islands, are funded by Údarás na Gaeltachta. On the non-Gaeltacht islands, each island or cluster of islands in the case of small islands has a community development project on the island that is funded by the Minister's Department. The community development projects are seeking more funding because like all administration, the administrative burden has gone through the roof. They provide a wide range of functions and while I will not say they act as a kind of mini-local authority, they are the community group on the island. They normally have and election system where everybody is a member of the company and has a democratic vote. The community development projects are the local organisations that everybody, including Departments, look to as their touchstone on the islands. They say they do not have sufficient funding. Remember, it is much more expensive. If one is a manager on an offshore island and has to go to the mainland, a lot of the time that means staying overnight. They often have all sorts of costs the rest of us do not face on a daily basis and have sought further funding. Is that matter under consideration in the Department?