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

Unfortunately, the Minister of State has avoided the issue in this debate, namely, that it is always possible to get whatever one needs in and out from the islands. Some 99% of the time, it is done with regular services but is the Minister of State telling me that if somebody on one of the islands had a medical emergency, for example, if a woman had a maternity emergency, they would not be able to get to her? Of course, not. We know we have gone way beyond that. Therefore, the idea that it is impossible to get them in is a fallacy.

Is the Minister of State accusing the returning officer in Cork of being reckless because, as I have said, Arranmore in Deputy Pearse Doherty's constituency is far easier to get to?

In the average month, summer and winter, there are over 400 sailings to Arranmore. That is seven or eight return sailings a day. The only reason there are not more is that there is no demand for more. Most people do not enjoy that kind of a bus service. The Minister of State would have to go back a long way to find a day when the ferry did not get in and out of Arranmore Island. If we are talking about that kind of oíche na gaoithe mór weather there will be no voting in most of the country if it blows that hard. If the snow came heavy enough the boxes will not come in from Wicklow. In these catastrophic situations the Minister of State will be worried about a lot more than island boats.

I believe we have a very responsible returning officer in Cork who has looked at this and has said this not a risk. It seems, however, that this is giving discretion for uneven behaviour and the date will depend on the lottery effect of which county one happens to live in. If the Minister of State really believed what she is telling me she would have set an objective test for the returning officers which would find that voting on the same day is possible. Certainly two days ahead, as happens in Donegal, even on Arranmore for some reason and Inishbiggle, is ridiculous, as the Cork experience proves where nothing has ever been held up.

I hope the Minister of State will at least reflect further on this matter and when it goes to the Seanad bring in an amendment to deal with this issue, to ensure that the islanders vote on the same day as the rest of the country and that on the off chance of incredibly bad weather, fíor droch stoirm, she will make the resources of the State available. Does she think that we, as representatives of the islands, would live with a situation that an emergency case cannot be got off the islands any time of the day or night and in any type of weather, where a person’s life is at stake, not when it is a question of a few votes being late? Emergency cases always get off. People would often be safer being on an island because they have such good services than they would be in more remote parts of the mainland, such as the place where I live.

It is a spurious argument. There is no basis to it. The Minister of State has been advised not to concede but she is the Minister of State. She is the person who has to justify to the public, as will her colleagues, how, on the one hand, they can tell us that a sick person can be taken off the island in all weathers, times and days but on the other hand, they cannot get a few boxes off an island at all times, all weathers and days. It is not logical. How anybody believes it takes two days to get them off baffles me even more. I feel very strongly about this and I hope when there is a change of Government that we will have an opportunity to put a serious wrong to right and this issue will be dealt with, given that in the last Government we put in the infrastructure to ensure this is no longer needed as an electoral provision.

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