Islanders criticise Government’s short-term funding fix

Islanders criticise Government’s short-term funding fix


Grant extended until end of March 2015

Áine Ryan

ISLANDERS from nine non-Gaeltacht islands along the west coast have dubbed an eleventh-hour reversal of key Government funding as ‘insufficient’ and ‘a sop’.
Just hours before island representatives from Mayo to Cork were due to hold their press conference, Minister of State for the Gaeltacht Joe McHugh announced that funding for the islands – due to be stopped at the end of the year – would now be extended until the end of March 2015.  
Recently, The Mayo News highlighted the fact that the future sustainability of non-Gaeltacht islands was being threatened by the scheduled withdrawal of core Government funding at the end of the year, leading to the closure of five Community Development offices around the coastline.  This was due to the proposed cessation of an annual grant of €600,000 by Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Alan Kelly.
Now, Minister McHugh has promised that, as well as extending the grant to the end of March 2015, both his department and the Department of the Environment would examine ways of ‘supporting the continuation of these vital island structures and services’.
CómdhΡil OileΡin na hÉireann – the islands’ federation – has called on Minister Alan Kelly to provide core investment under a dedicated islands’ development programme, which would secure vital services, such as educational training and childcare, waste management, management of community buildings, festivals and tourism projects.
Mayo’s Inishturk and Clare Island, as well as Galway’s Inishbofin and the Cork islands of Bere, Sherkin, Dursey, Whiddy, Long and Heir are the primary communities affected by the funding cutback.
A 1996 interdepartmental report on islands, chaired by former Fine Gael junior minister Donal Carey, identified the Leader programme as the mechanism for supporting non-Gaeltacht islands’ development.
Islanders argue that the current Department of the Environment combination of government programmes, defined along county boundaries, does not facilitate a dedicated focus on the unique needs of offshore communities. They believe that a new funding mechanism under the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) – due to be implemented in April 2015 – is both too complex bureaucratically and will suit ‘big-players’, thus proving to be exclusive.
Speaking recently, Michelle O’Mahoney, the former Community Co-Ordinator on Clare Island, said:  “The islands are key economic drivers in their respective regions and are a major draw for tourism in Ireland. They are of added importance as a symbol of and link to the promotion of the Wild Atlantic Way, which relies on the island connection to create a complete experience of the west. The inhabited islands off the Irish coast are a unique reservoir of arts, culture, identity and heritage.”
CómdhΡil Secretary, Ms Rhoda Twombly of Clew Bay island, Inishlyre said said that the total grant of €600,000 for the five community development offices, threatened by the cutbacks,  was very good value.

Funding extension
MINISTER of State Michael Ring, who recently launched the Clare Island Community Futures programme, said that during his visit he ‘saw the great work that was being carried out on the island and how the posts of the community development offices are crucial to the non-Gaeltacht islands’.
“It has been confirmed that funding will continue to the end of March 2015. I am very confident that an appropriate solution will be found to support the continuation of these vital island structures and services.”