Seanad debates

Wednesday, 3 December 2003

Order of Business. - Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (Powers and Functions) Bill 2003: Second Stage.

 

The Bill does a number of simple things. The first of these is that it regularises a situation which was found to be ultra vires. I refer to the fact that I, as Minister, was responsible for the fact that people travelling from the islands were not left at the mainland by the boat and that was it. What is the point in bringing people from Inisbofin on the west coast and leaving them in Cleggan and saying that they are on their own? We dealt with this situation by tying up the boat contract with a bus contract and now, on days when regular services are provided, people can travel from Inisbofin to Clifden in Galway. However, we went one step further. There is no secondary school in Inisbofin so we arranged that on each Sunday evening and Friday evening, and on school holidays, children from the island are picked up at the pier and brought to their schools, Kylemore Abbey and St. Jarlath's in Tuam, on the mainland. The position is reversed when they are returning home. From the point of view of parents, that is a revolutionary change in the situation which existed 20 years ago when children came home for their mid-term breaks, returned to school and lost all contact with the island.

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