Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for taking this matter. The Minister is aware of the issue with Inishmurray Island where the Marine Survey Office under his Department has directed that no licensed craft may land on the island.

This is a very serious matter. As the Minister is not personally familiar with Inishmurray island, I will paint a picture for him. Inishmurray island is the Blasket Islands and Skellig Michael rolled into one. It is the site of a monastic settlement founded by Saint Molaise in 520 AD. People have been landing on the island for 1,500 years. In more modern times, 102 residents lived on the island at the turn of the last century. They raised cattle on the island and brought them to the market on the mainland regularly. They also fished there. For the past 30 years, Inishmurray has been a very important aspect of both the Sligo offering and the Irish offering in terms of tourism. Indeed, if Members who live here in the Pale broadened their horizons and thought a little bit more about what we have up there, then maybe "Star Wars" could have been shot on that island. It certainly has scenery that equals Skellig Michael or the Blasket islands.

The Marine Survey Office, MSO, has unilaterally taken action which will put boat people out of business and inhibit former islanders - members of the Brady and Herrity families who are still alive - and many hundreds of descendants who have a tradition of visiting every single year. The Minister must work on a cross-departmental basis to get an immediate derogation for landing on Inishmurray island until such time as a permanent solution can be identified and put in place. Even if the Minister was to make the money available today to design and build a new pier or whatever the MSO deems necessary, it would be four years before anyone could set foot on the island. I appeal to the Minister to work with everyone involved to get a derogation on landing on Inishmurray island immediately and then to knock heads together to ensure that a more permanent solution is put in place.

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