Ms Cathy Ní Ghóill:

Beidh triúr againn ag caint agus táimid chun dul abhuis is abhus. Déanfaidh mé i mBéarla agus i nGaeilge é. Táimse anseo ar son comharchumann forbartha Inis Mór. We thank the Chairman and members for the opportunity to appear before the joint committee. It is exciting and daunting to come to the Oireachtas. I am joined by the school principal of Coláiste Naomh Eoin from Inis Mór because we want to tie in education and Mr. Simon Murray, the Chairperson of Islands Federation of Ireland. We are interlinked on the issue of the Inis Mór ferry service. We have provided the committee with our opening statement, but I am not going to read it. I will speak from the heart.

We travelled across the Wild Atlantic Way. We were lucky enough to get across on the ferry, a service which has been in danger for a number of weeks. We are blessed to live in such a wonderful place as Inis Mór, which is part of the Aran Islands. We appreciate the culture and the heritage of our island. One makes a decision to live on an island. Rural living can be difficult, but living on an island is even more difficult and challenging. As an islander born and bred, when I made the decision to move back to Inis Mór, one of the many factors involved was the availability of services and access facilities. I suffer from sea sickness so it is not great to live on an island when that is the case. The fact that services had improved greatly since I was a child was a major factor in my decision to move home. We had both an excellent air and boat service, which had improved in the course of time. One makes a decision to move to or remain on an island based on many factors. Unfortunately, in the past four years this has become more challenging. The reason I go back four years is that I will deal with both the air service and the ferry service.

Members may have seen or heard us on the media because we have been battling to keep basic services going. Our air service was nearly cut back. It all stems from the failure to listen to the views of the islanders. There is an ongoing issue with the ferry service because no Government contract was put in place by Roinn na Gaeltachta. The previous speaker, Mr. Kevin Kelly, touched on that point. The ferry company does not want a Government contract, but the islanders want a Government contract to ensure that a service continues all year round.

In 2011, Galway County Council decided to introduce by-laws for Kilronan Harbour. A significant amount of money has been spent on Kilronan Harbour, a development that was badly needed and was between 50 and 60 years overdue. Galway County Council was the project co-ordinator as the owner of the pier, but the work was the result of the effort of people from the bottom up, the people of Inis Mór. The fishermen and the people knew that the harbour was an absolute danger and that we, the islanders needed a sheltered harbour. We lobbied for 15 years and Deputy Ó Cuív knows because we had his ears reddened begging for the funding of infrastructure, which we got from Galway County Council and Roinn na Gaeltachta. We were delighted to get it. We feel that it was great to get the development and it has been worth every cent in our opinion, but I do not think we should have been penalised for that development. We never agreed in principle with levies. We agree there are running costs and that there should have been some other form of charge, but we did not agree with the levies. We verbalised that vocally as my friends in the council know and we were outside protesting and talking to politicians about it. We as islanders believe it stems from not being listened to. If the councillors had listened to us from 2011, I do not think we would be in the mess we are today. As Mr. Kelly stated, the case went to the High Court and there have been costs, including the cost of appeals. All of this has been hanging over the people of Inis Mór, who do not know if they will have a service the following week.

We did not agree with the levies. There was a vote in Galway County Council and democracy won through. While I am totally in favour of democracy, sometimes it does not work and in this case, I do not think it worked. The people who use and understand the service were not listened to and that was the inhabitants of the island. We are sick of battling to keep basic services that we should have. I would say the politicians are tired of us calling meetings and begging for help and assistance. That is wrong. We want a ferry service. We are aware of the factors. The company, Island Ferries, runs an excellent service but it is a private company that can do what it likes when it likes. This is why we want a Government contract to be put in place and that is what we will be looking for going forward.

The issue of levies created a problem. The company made public the difficulties with running costs in the winter time but the end result is that the islanders face the possibility of no service from 1 December to March. We did not know when the ferry pulled out on 1 December whether it would be back until March. If we had not fought to keep our air service, that would have been gone and we would have been totally stranded.

We are grateful for the opportunity to come before the committee today. I think it is counterproductive to spend this time blaming and pointing fingers at others. We hope that our views will be listened to. After Mr Ó Cualain's contribution, Mr. Simon Murray will speak on policy issues and the need for a policy for islands. We have seen the impact of what is lacking on islands for the past four or five years. We have raised the issues but we are not being listened to and basic services are being pulled. We accept there are costs associated with the pier, but we felt there were other ways to cover them, be it a price based on the tonnage per vessel. In our campaign against the levies at the time, our banner headline was "Penalised for being islanders". That is what we felt.

There is great talk about the Wild Atlantic Way, and we are on the Wild Atlantic Way. Dún Aengus is listed in the Top Ten Ocean Views in the world by National Geographic. That is significant. The views are amazing and we live in an amazing place, but at the end of the day it is the people who make a place. If we do not have a vibrant community, with the population increasing, then the Aran Islands are in trouble and Inis Mór is the largest populated island on the coast of Ireland. The population is dropping as it is on all islands. Our fear is that it is difficult to encourage people to return to the islands. I have relatives who were considering coming back from overseas and they are now saying there might not be a plane or a boat service. That is hanging over us.

We need a change of policy. We are discussing the levy today, but something has to change and our views must be listened to as we should not be in this position. We should not have to come to fight and beg for the right to travel. We have a right to the right of travel within our country. We need a ferry to get from A to B. A ferry operator should not be penalised for providing a good service. Costs need to be covered but I think there are other ways to deal with that. If our views had been listened to four years ago, there would not have been the court cases with related accumulating costs. We also would not be living with the stress of not knowing if we would be able to go from Inis Mór to the mainland on a given day.

Ar an bpointe sin, críochnóidh mé mo spiel. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil an tUasal Ó Cualáin ag iarraidh teacht isteach ar an taobh oideachais dó. Education is interlinked. It is like a dominoes effect, if one goes, they all tumble. For us access and infrastructure is a significant factor to living on an island.