Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's determination and that she now has an initial working draft of a policy for which we have long waited. She has given a publication date of before the end of the year. I will be holding her to that. I take a cynical attitude to this, given the background here. There has been no policy for the islands. We have had interdepartmental workforces going back to 1996, yet through that time we have had no development with regard to policy. By contrast, the islands in Scotland have a comprehensive policy based on legislation and their population is increasing. The opposite is the case here.

As regards the working draft, what issues have been identified, given that Members have been inundated with issues from the islands? The islands are working in a vacuum and we receive constant representations about the céanna ar Inis Oírr agus ar Inis Meáin, for example. There is also the debacle relating to the LEADER payment, which I understand Deputy Ó Cuív will be raising later. The islands have asked that they be treated as one region for the purposes of LEADER . Of course, there is the issue of housing. These issues are being raised all the time in a vacuum, with no policy.

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