Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Public consultation meetings have begun and have been held on a number of island communities before Covid-19 restrictions resulted in the suspension of the process. Online public consultation meetings were then arranged for the remaining island communities via videoconference call, although this was logistically more challenging due to various factors such as broadband quality. Thankfully, that has improved on some of the islands since then. Online meetings were not held with Clare Island or Tory due to lack of online engagement and other mitigating factors. I am glad to say Clare Island now has good broadband. Public meetings were held on those islands at the beginning of May.

There is a list of islands that were consulted: Sherkin, Whiddy, Dursey, Bere, Inisheer, Inishmore, Inishmaan, Heir Island, Long Island, Cléire in County Cork, Arranmore in County Donegal, Tory in County Donegal and Clare Island in County Mayo. Islands consulted by online meetings by focus group were Inishbofin, Inishturk and smaller Donegal islands represented by Comharchumann na nOileán Beag on 19 November. Most of them got the face-to-face consultation. If they wanted it, they got it. I think the rest of them are happy.

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