Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Unfortunately, as the Deputy will be aware, only a small number of people live on Inishbiggle, an island which has experienced a significant population decline in recent years. I doubt if anybody on the island is in any doubt as to the Department's position on the cable car project, given that I visited the island during my most recent visit to County Mayo and spent more than an hour explaining the precise position and the parameters within which I was working. I also promised islanders that I would inform them if the Department had approved the project once my discussions with Ireland West Tourism and others had concluded.

The tragedy is that the cable car project could have proceeded many years ago had it not been for various local difficulties and objections lodged at various stages. While people are entitled to object, the Department had to wait until all the problems were overcome before issuing compulsory purchase orders and so forth. The scenario I faced in spring was that, on the one hand, I had a report on my desk indicating that the cable car facility could not be justified purely as an island project while, on the other, I was facing a deadline as regards the decision to purchase the land required for the project. I took the decision that the deadline was too close and I had not done enough homework in terms of examining the project's tourism potential to defray some of the costs of constructing a cable car facility. As a result, I instructed my officials to inform Mayo County Council that it should proceed with the purchase of the land in question to ensure the project would remain intact.

The Department will have to make a decision on the issue. I have always believed, conditional on a wide range of factors falling into place, that the project has island potential as well as significant tourism potential, particularly in light of the development of Ballycroy. This development potential will only be realised, however, if the cable car operator drives it.

The question of old people living on the island who need to move to the mainland is a catch-22, although it was not meant as such, in that if I am seen to be proactively encouraging or assisting people to leave the island, others on the island will argue that my intention is to kill the island. However, if I do not get proactively involved in assisting those who need to leave the island, I will be accused of not looking after people's needs. If someone is seriously ill, the local authorities should look favourably on an application from that person and I would make a strong case that if there were good medical or social reasons for a person to leave the island, the fact that he or she has a house on the island should not be a reason for not giving that person a house on the mainland. I would articulate that view on behalf of someone on an island who needed mainland residence because of illness if I was asked to. I do not want someone saying that because a person has a perfectly good house, he or she can stay there. If illness is involved, and if it would be better for his or her health to stay on the mainland, it would be right and humane and I would make that point to any local authority. My experience, however, is that local authorities are sympathetic. They are trying to keep the same balance as us — not to depopulate the island in a driven fashion and to take a social view of individual circumstances.

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