Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

They are not connected by bridges to the mainland so they are not considered in this context. We define as islands those cut off by the tide once a day in a normal tide. They must have a permanent population and not be in the ownership of one person. The legislation allows us to make the definition so if, for example, the causeway to Inch Island gets washed away, we can define it as an island. A list of islands is not scheduled in the legislation. In the case of Inch Island, my Department provided money on a once-off basis to maintain the causeway so that it would not become a fully offshore island. Responsibility for this lies with the county council but because the job requires a little more work I will consider these exceptional circumstances on a once-off basis.

The islands have a good representative body. Islands have a close connection with the Government and islanders do not have any difficulty interacting with Government. In recent years I usually have to seek a meeting with them, rather than the other way around. They get straight on the telephone to our officials. There is a marvellous interaction between islanders and local authority and departmental officials. It is critical that officials on the ground are seen as friendly, accessible, helpful and co-operative people. The great aspect about dealing with a body of 3,000 people is that one can virtually get to know each one individually.

I give due recognition to the work of a former Minister of State with responsibility for this area, Donal Carey, who set up a dedicated island fund. This was the first breakthrough for non-Gaeltacht islands. Gaeltacht islands always had access to funds. It is intended to continue to develop facilities. I was amused to hear references to money. The Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, has been more than generous to the islands. Every time I went to him with a reasonable case, he was more than willing to provide finance.

Tory and Inishbofin are the two most northerly islands. Work has been completed on the Magheraroarty pier and we have finished the work commenced by the rainbow Government on Tory Island. We have also completed work on Bunbeg Harbour, which is important for ferry services. The Leabh Gharbh pier has been completed on Arranmore. Down the coast from there, money was recently sanctioned for Coney Island where we also installed electricity. We are now working on the two biggest contracts ever for islands, namely Clare Island and Inisturk. We built slipways on both ends of Inishbiggle, at Ballycroy and Doran's Point. The delay with the cable car was beyond our control. In Clew Bay, work on Inislyre, Insegort and Clynish is either in progress or has been completed. The largest project is scheduled for the Aran Islands. Planning work is already in progress there and we will get around to it in due course. Next year, we hope to put in an airstrip and carry out dredging of the harbour in Inishbofin. All of the County Cork islands, with the exception of Dursey which has a cable car, have had major improvements to piers since 1997.