Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Connolly and support her motion and our islands. The key argument set out in the motion before us is accurate, particularly the reference to the ad hocnature of how we are managing and developing the islands. I am familiar with Inishbofin off the coast of Galway and may take that as an example. What the Minister and Government have stated is true - there have been real improvements.

There is now a first class ferry to the island, which is of huge benefit. On the other hand, a runway was built on the western side of the island. I cannot remember how much it cost - it must have been the guts of €5 million to €10 million - but one can only think of what could have been done with that money. There was a matching runway in Cleggan, but both are now sitting idle. Submissions were invited on what should be done with the runways. I made my submission about a year and a half or two years ago and we have not heard anything back since. That is an example of the ad hocnature of the process and the lack of a clear sense of direction or development. I mention Inishbofin in that context. It is related to the first point made by Deputy Connolly about island communities, namely, that they have unparalleled knowledge of both the problems and the solutions to ensure a sustainable future. To back up that contention, I cite the great green economist, Richard Douthwaite, who was very familiar with Inishbofin. He used to stay with friends who were living just above the harbour. He was a brilliant green economist who looked at alternative ways of measuring progress and seeing the limits on growth. He called it the growth illusion. He thought the islands were very useful places with which to start in thinking about this issue because what went onto or came off an island was measurable. That first point in the second part of Deputy Connolly's motion is absolutely right. As well as for their own intrinsic right to development and importance, if there is a need for another argument in favour of investment on the islands, they are the perfect test cases for the massive transition we will need to make towards sustainability. I will give a few pointers in that regard that might steer the Government or the committee when it meets next Tuesday in considering what that might involve.

First, good examples are starting to evolve in considering how the islands might be energy independent. I refer to the first test cases in respect of the new 100% renewable sustainable energy and zero carbon future we are heading towards. The community energy co-operative on Inis Mór has done very good work and is often cited as the best case. We should take what it is doing and encourage it to go further. We should support, facilitate and fund it to go further. As we move the entire island system towards the use of electric vehicles, electric heating, properly retrofitted buildings and battery storage systems to store wind energy, we learn lessons that will be applicable in other areas. The same applies to all of the islands which have particular difficulties in getting fossil fuels out to them. There are security risks. There are costs involved in that regard. It is to make the case for islands as a special place to become energy centres.

Second, in terms of food, I will start with fisheries because there is a need for a complete shift away from massive marine protected areas. We need to stop big offshore trawlers catching all of the fish and allow fish to reach us and the islands to become some of the first locations where we start to restore inshore fisheries. If we can again develop the island fisheries systems, we will also develop the connecting ports. If we can develop half a dozen half deckers on Inishbofin, we will find the same can be done on Cleggan and that the distribution system that will work on Inishbofin will work on Cleggan. The same applies to Castletownbere and Bere Island and Inis Mór and Rossaveal which I understand has just lost its fish factories. If we could develop fisheries and the supply chain to the islands and also connect Rossaveal, that would work.

It is interesting that we are having this debate on the same evening we had the debate on the beef farming issue. Given my experience on Inishbofin and elsewhere, the real question is: where is the next generation of farmers for the island? Who will maintain the landscape and the incredible special sense of nature? I know some of the farmers. While they are young of heart, they are not that young. I cited a case. There was a training programme in west Connemara and the youngest person attending it was 48 years old. They were the young farmer. If we could get farming sorted on the islands, it would help us in similar areas in rural Ireland. If one of the solutions to the farming issue is connections to the consumer progeny - a sense of where things come from - as a product, Inishbofin lamb would attract a premium price and have a connection to the market. In its response the Government stated that half a million people go to the islands. They have a connection, so we could connect the food to those people. I was talking to my colleague Saoirse McHugh who ran in the European Parliament elections. She had a great time canvassing and one of the reasons was no matter where she went, when she said she was from Achill Island, the world and its wife sensed that they had a connection. They would say, "I know Achill. Do you know Paddy Joe in Dugort?" That sense of connection is important. Connecting food from the islands might be how we start encouraging a new generation of young farmers who will form a new life on the islands because they would be able to gain a valid income from producing food to which people could connect because they would know from where it was coming.

When I talk to islanders, they scratch their heads and say what they fear losing is the rich cultural life - the language, the music and everything else about island life. The term used is "island skills", that sense of men and women who are multi-tasking. They have great capability to turn their hand to construction, fisheries, farming and fixing things.We are now educating everyone to go. We should educate people in island skills, which would be as useful as any degree and is something that requires real wisdom. We should value it. If we do not do this, we will continue to see the population decline. We need to value island skills.

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