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A LONG-AWAITED government strategy for the revitalisation of island communities has received a broad welcome, but some who call the islands home want action to ensure the plan doesn’t become “just a piece of paper”.
Although groups have strived to be welcoming about the measures put forward, a former minister for the islands criticised the strategy as only holding “vague commitments” with one funding initiative blasted as a “minuscule return for four years work”.
There were also warnings on whether various government departments are prepared to meet the task at hand, including from the minister overseeing the project.
The ‘Our Living Islands’ strategy was published yesterday on Arranmore Island, near Co Donegal, almost three decades since the last such plan for islands dotted around Ireland’s coast.
While it includes measures on housing and remote in a bid to make living on offshore islands easier and more affordable, one proposal also caught the eye of islander groups amid a warning shot fired by Minister Heather Humphreys about other government departments.
The strategy promises rolling three-year action plans across the next decade, but with a review group chaired by her department overseeing its implementation and including island representatives among its membership.
Humphreys, who holds the brief for Rural and Community Development, told the gathering for the launch that the “time-bound commitments” would ensure accountability for other departments.
“However I also have this warning for them; deliver your actions and meet your targets,” the Cavan-Monaghan TD said.
There is an onus on every government department to step up to the plate now and deliver for our islands and I believe the will is there from my cabinet colleagues to do just that.
She added: “And to ensure accountability to our key stakeholders, I am pleased to say that I will be appointing representatives of the island communities to that committee.”
This concern was shared by Galway West Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív, who served as minister with responsibility for the islands in the 2000s.
Ó Cuív claimed to The Journal that the government as a whole had “seemed to have emasculated the ability” of Humphreys’ department to ensure action in providing island services, from water to pier upgrades and other infrastructure.
Aisling Moran, who travelled to the launch from her home on Inisherkin in Roaringwater Bay off Co Cork, told this website that it could yet be a crucial measure.
“This is just a piece of paper otherwise. Unless we have a voice to say, ‘look, this was in the action plan to say we’d look at housing’, then it’s just a document,” said Moran, who heads up a development group on her native island.
Humphreys also promised that island communities will benefit from “positive discrimination” when applying for investment in local projects from her department so that they “get their fair share of the cake”.
These funds, which are drawn down from local authorities, will be specifically for island communities and will be held separately from funding for similar projects in communities on the mainland.
These include programmes such as CLAR, which provides funding to fight population decline, and the local improvement scheme (LIS) for roads and lanes, as well as the Town and Village and the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund.
Housing is one of the big ticket items featured in the plan.
Minister Humphreys and Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien have agreed to introduce changes to the Vacant Property Grant Scheme to support the renovations of vacant and derelict properties on offshore islands.
The measure allows home buyers who wish to refurbish and live in vacant and derelict properties on islands receive a 20% top up on the Government’s Croí Cónaithe funding grant.
The maximum grant for island properties will be 20% higher for vacant properties – €60,000 compared to €50,000 on the mainland.
Derelict properties on the islands can receive a grant of up to €84,000 compared to €70,000 on the mainland.
This will come into effect from 1 July and will be applied retrospectively to any existing applications.
This was welcomed by Moran who said: “The announcement on vacant homes is super, as is the stuff around ringfencing of Rural and Community Development [funding]. We’re up against bigger projects on the mainland that we don’t have the numbers for, even though we have the equal need.
“It appears the department has listened to us and what we need, and we’ll know further once we get to sit down with it.”
Máire Uí Mhaoláin, who leads non-profit island group Comhar na nOileán, said she was pleased to hear Humphreys outline what was described as a “strong commitment” from the Housing Minister that the forthcoming draft planning guidelines for rural housing will “recognise the specific challenges that island communities face”.
This followed feedback from islanders over struggles to build homes on land owned by their family, partially due to planning and environmental restrictions.
“There were some very positive things said on the planning system, that it needs looking at on the islands. We haven’t heard that for years,” Uí Mhaoláin said.
We’ve been hearing about environmental constraints on planning for years but it’s great that’s been recognised now.
However, she added: “Overall we can’t say much about the policy document at the moment – it’s the actions that come out of it really that will be the measure of it.”
Summing up his reaction, Ó Cuív declared the plan as “simply a copy and paste of existing policies” with a lack of specific new financial commitments.
He added that he welcomed the top up grant for vacant and derelict houses but added that he believed a larger increase in the region of 30% was required.
Ó Cuív said this would cover the extra cost of bringing materials and specialised labour into islands.
“Due to EU law they have to even resort to importing stone onto many islands for building purposes,” he said.
Depopulation
A Noteworthy investigation earlier this year examined the depopulation crisis facing our offshore islands, speaking to islanders who fear their voices are going unheard with policymakers.
Noteworthy spoke to dozens of islanders and community leaders, and visited islands from Cork to Donegal to examine the key infrastructure issues facing the islands, including housing constraints, concerns over healthcare services, damaged pier infrastructure and a lack of support for traditional fishing communities.
Islanders expressed concern with long delays in publication of the islands plan. They said that it needs to be implemented urgently to deal with population decline and ageing populations, as well as a myriad of other infrastructural issues.
The Islands Federation told the Noteworthy team at the time that it was not directly involved in designing the policy document and have not set eyes on the draft report despite various requests.
When asked why the Federation did not get to view the document, Humphreys said she was eager to get the document published after it had already been hit by numerous delays.
These were due to the pandemic and a lengthier consultation than planned, but also when Humphreys had previously sent the islands strategy back to the drawing board, after stating that she would not publish a review until she was “satisfied that it contains credible actions that will make a difference to our island communities”.
Speaking to The Journal on Arranmore, Humphreys said: “I wanted to get this island policy published today. There was online and face to face engagement, and the face to face may have delayed it a little longer but they were dead right to look for that.”
She added that the strategy is a “living document” owing to the review group and that “islanders can recognise that a lot of their asks” are in the published strategy.
“They put a huge input into it and I thank them for that.”
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Victims have rights as well.
@John Campbell: Victims should have rights but they don’t.
@Gillian Weir Scully: What rights do victims of crime not have, that the should have?
@Cathal O’Neill: Ask a victim I am sure they will tell you.
@Cathal O’Neill: In fact ask Kieran.
@Cathal O’Neill: To feel safe.
@Cathal O’Neill: They have the right not to be a victim of crime.
Stupid question.
@Michael O’Neill: But the fact that on committing a crime, a criminal does not respect the rights of victims doesn’t mean that a victim doesn’t have rights. The original comment doesn’t make any sense in the context of the article. There is no suggestion that victims of crime be denied anything. The focus of the article is the failure of the current system of incarceration to reduce recidivism and overall crime rates.
@John Campbell: Just reread article and Malone says about the sever mental stress of being in solitary confinement. What about the victims who now live in fear after their lives have changed 100% due to a crime against them?
They are right prison does not work so a different system has to be put in place and there have been some great suggestions on here and yes I know mine were a little extreme.
We should all go to this conference!
@Cathal O’Neill: the do not have justice. A life for a life. That’s justice.
I was burgled last week. A significant amount of valuables were stolen. We caught the thief using ipad find my device. He was out on the street 2 days later. V v v sad our system. He had 150 previous convictions and is on methadone the cops say.
@Kieran Mc Donnell: Very sorry for you and your family being put through the terrible trauma of that.
So who ever was the reason for letting the person out is feeding his habit and letting him reoffend. This would happen less if you were allowed to the home of Mr NiceGuy and take their stuff to the value of your missing stuff.
@Kieran Mc Donnell: sue the minister for justice for failing to keep you and your family safe. There’s no way someone with 150 convictions should be out on street. It’s been done before. Got to hit the government in the pocket before they will change
@Michael Geraghty: perhaps treating the drug problem would be more effective than throwing him in jail?
@Michael Geraghty: That might work particularly if all the other victims of his crimes were included in the law suit. If he had been stopped fully after first crime there would be 149 people not effected.
@Michael Geraghty: haha. 150 convictions.. So he is a beginner then. I know of people with 3x 5x 8x more, happily terrorizing communities still. Cutting hands off for theft. Let’s bring that back!
@Joe Dobias: 3 strikes in a 5yr period is a good system. The 5yr count does not count prison or suspended sentence. If you haven’t already copped on after 3 chances then sentencing increases by a significant factor.
@Michael Geraghty: When we hit the gov in the pocket it’s the tax payer who pays not the gov official.
I think we have proven the light touch approach certainly doesn’t work.
45% re convict within 3 years because we let them out too bloody soon. Especially in case of sexual attacks. Who can honestly argue that a child rapist should ever see the light of day again?
@john Appleseed: agreed 100%
@john Appleseed: No child in this day and age should suffer from any harm. Children are a precious gift and we should protect them all.
Castration is the answer and I am not talking the medical kind. Take any funds they have and give to the victims. To be sure cut a hand or two off for robbing a child of their innocence.
@Gillian Weir Scully: The Saudis would be proud!!!!
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: thank you? Laughing. Actually maybe we could send them over there for hard Labour. We look after the Saudi horses with our lovely green grass they have our criminals. Fair exchange is no robbery?
Three strikes and your out of society for good ,for crimes where violence is used .Community service for petty offenders ,and no release for a prisoner unless he has and takes up a job offer ,releasing them with no means of supporting themselves causes a lot of re-offending
Release on licence ,which can be revoked if he associates with anyone with a criminal record ,
Curfews and monitoring of movements by electronic tagging.Regular testing for drugs including Alcohol.
@Brian O Reilly: You are much more reasonable than me…… could we not open Spike island again with big strong electric fences and sharks in tanks to make sure they can’t escape. Prison wardens could patrol in boats with guns shoot to kill. Wire mesh over Island so they can’t get illicit drugs or contraband etc. I have not worked how to feed them yet. Oh well I am sure they were not concerned about their victims.
@Gillian Weir Scully: all in favour say yes. YES YES YES
@Gillian Weir Scully: I suggested earlier that we use drones to drop basic food until their veg grow which they will plant. But seaweed is a good source of food, We could drop a few books on wild berries, plants they could go looking for. Garlic, mint, & other herbs grow wild so there is seasoning for them. It can be done as there are people who live from foraging. What do you think of my idea.?
@Dave barrett: YES.
@Gillian Weir Scully: there is a reason people like you are not in government running the prisons service… Can’t think of any myself of the top of my head. I’d vote for you.
@Séa Graham: I had an awful day yesterday and you have made me laugh today so for that I thank you … even though I know you are joking.
@Gillian Weir Scully: you are undoubtedly compassionate, but only as far as the well-being of the sharks. They would be much more effective swimming in their natural habitat, around the island. Or did you mean (Sherman) kind of tank? “I have not worked out how to feed them yet.” You’d feed them the prisoners, right?
@Gillian Weir Scully: I’m not joking ya know
Commit a crime and sure we will help you you poor ol hard done by person you, and offend again and sure we will double our efforts to help, Fook right off, punishment is not harsh enough, and as for rapists and child offenders well u don’t see prison as there punishment, I see the electric chair, we won’t have to worry bout them offending again,
@Mick Hannigan: Not the electric chair have you seen the cost of electricity lately. Nice lethal injection with very big needle.
@Mick Hannigan: never going to happen so why not come up with a real solution even if they deserve the chair
@Mick Hannigan: Why do you not commit crimes? If it is only the threat of incarceration that holds you back from theft, rape and murder then you are a terrible human being. If not, why do believe incarceration is such an effective response to crime committed by others?
@Cathal O’Neill: bullets are way cheaper. And can prolong the suffering by using couple before the last one..
@Joe Dobias: Hot poker in eye is even cheaper.
@Gillian Weir Scully: Gillian you are a sick b*t*h but I love ya, lol
@Cathal O’Neill: I along with about 90% of people are decent, caring and hard working who would have no inclination to do harm to another human.
I agree prison system does not work because criminals have no fear of the system.
@Gillian Weir Scully: Forget the eye up the ass so they will remember it for the rest of their life
Judging by the number of people who reoffend then prison is not the answer. Tattooing P for phediphile or M for murderer on their forehead and R for rapist may help. Stocks for minor offenses and public can through what ever they like.
If people think they can get away with a crime they will reoffend and keep doing it.
If a thief thinks he may lose a hand he will think very hard before losing that and if he does lose a hand the first time he will be thinking harder before losing his last hand.
As for drones dropping drugs etc into jails has no one thought of wire mesh?
Drug dealers caught could be forced to ingest all the drugs on them.
Victims of house breaking would be allowed to take back from the criminal.
Victims suffer criminals don’t is that fair?
@Gillian Weir Scully: you are crazy lol!
@goon4life: I know back pain makes you less tolerant of others who inflict pain. Laughing.
To many do goods around . Free legal aid non stop . It’s should be limited to twice let them off.
@John Scott: What ( very loud exclamation ) you mean they do wrong and all the good people including their victims pay for them to get off and reoffend ?
Can’t we just say you are not serving mankind to your full ability so we are taking over your body for science?
Slap them on the wrist and tell them not to do it again. Jesus the sur god love them brigade will will be out in force for this one.
What the hell are prisons for.. fill them for gods sake.
@Dave barrett: the problem is the prisons are full. We need to build more prisons.
@David Murphey: No don’t build more prisons just explain very nicely to those who have been there the longest that we are very sorry we need the room so we will be using a lethal injection tomorrow. All your victims will participate. You have a nice Day now.
@Dave barrett: Quite agree slap them on the wrist and blind them to be on the safe side it will be a lot harder to commit crime if you can’t see.
Maybe the journal could fact check how many blind people in prison?
Or judges that hand out lenient sentences. Name and shame.
@David Murphey: lets build them and lets fill them. No morewaiting for files to be sent to DPP. Bring in remand.
@Gillian Weir Scully: problem is the judges are blind. Victims dont matter. New legistation needed and manditory sentence needed for particular crimes.
@David Murphey: There are plenty of islands around this country with nothing on them except a few seals, birds the feathered kind, Put them there & the only way off is by swimming. Give them a few tools to build a shelter, plant veg etc & use drones to drop the basic foods until the veg grow. When their time is up tell them to start swimming & a boat will pick them up approx a mile from the island. If they make it to the boat then they are free. But the boat has to be rowed to the coast of Ireland.
@bings: I like that idea provided birds etc are not effected. Also need automatic gun fire over island to stop them being rescued by their friends and if they go shot…..oops.
@David Murphey : Yep, all the solutions are probably in Papillon somewhere both book and film. Just don’t give them access to coconuts and sacks.
Prison is 100% effective in reducing crime, you can’t commit crimes against ordinary citizens when your locked up. That’s the point of it.
The nice thing about these conferences is they’ll be packed with people like Malone who are nicely insulated from the effect criminals have communities
@Inky Winky: Sadly I fear you are right. Prisoners have too many rights and the prison guards suffer.
As for people in the conference if they heard the other side from victims or if they saw the victims in photos if they can’t speak for themselves perhaps they might come up with a better system of punishment.
Article “locking people up in jail isn’t an effective deterrent from crime”. Comments “Lock them up more”. Ask yourself why you don’t commit crimes? If it is the threat of punishment then you are a terrible human being. For most of us it is empathy, respect for others, the golden rule etc. In a more ultilitarian sense many of us have no need to commit crime. We live happy, stable fulfilling lives that are as much attributable to fortune as to our own design. So if we agree that most people don’t commit crime regardless of punishment, why do so many people see incarceration and punishment as such effective deterrents. Norway has achieved the lowest recidivism rates in the world by focusing on rehabilitation and so called “light touch”.
@Cathal O’Neill: Not locking them up is worse.
There was an informative article by Noeleen Blackwell CEO of the Rape Crisis Centre on the subject of pornography and its influence on the attitudes and behavior ofYoung people at present . Why was it taken down.it was on this website about an hour ago .
@Aine O Connor: I found the article again, it’s way down among the articles posted 16 hours ago.
I have an idea. Long sentences for violent crimes. Death sentence for murders. No suspended sentences. Minimum mandatory sentences and If it’s still too full. Work camps. Loads of them. You work your ass off for free. Crime has to be punished and you must be ashamed of it. Not like today. You really think about doing crime or doing time.
@Joe Dobias: fair point. There is a lot of free labour there to build the houses we desperately need.
There has to be some form of penalty for crime. If there wasn’t it would be a society of “do as thou will, is the whole of the law”. Murder, Rape, Robbery would go unpunished. So that leaves us as Society with a choice of how we punish those that break the rules/laws. We can use Corporal or Capital punishment as one means or we can remove the offenders from Society by incarceration in a Prison. The idea of using Prison as a reforming tool is relatively new in historical terms (around 200 years) . And let’s be brutally honest it has failed miserably at that task. But what it had been good at for thousands of years was a place of Punishment for those that had transgressed the laws of society. So we need to choose how to move forward. Return Prisons to their original puropse, Punishment?
Society has rules of conduct and behavior that allow all to Co habit peacefully together.
Some abuse what society has to offer and others are dangerous to society.
Removing the abusers from society protects the good people in society. Protecting those who make the effort and play by the rules should always be the first priority.
If they can find a better way to rehabilitate while putting the procreation of society first fare play to them
Gillian Weir Scully: Genghis Khan was more reasonable than you.
@Brian O Reilly: Laughing. I will take that as a compliment.
Now there’s a thought. Four horses and ropes.
Yeah maybe we need to build big naughty corners. Typical liberal manure. Victims of crime have rights too, but some people still have sympathy only for criminals!
@Gerard McConnell: If they have sympathy for criminals then they have to stand up and be counted for helping criminals or being criminals themselves.
Im not going to be popular for saying this, but i believe what the penal reform people are saying. I think we need to start at the very beginning, while the future offenders are in the womb. No parent brings a child into the world to be a criminal. Parenting classes, compulsory, with the child benefit payable only if and when completed. There needs to be a strong garda presence in each childs life from an early age, ie, visiting the pre and primary schools, getting to know the children personally, coaching sports, etc. If you grow up with the gardai as your friend, that you know all your life, then i think you would think twice about committing a crime.
Just my opinion.
More Hug-a-Thug rhetoric from the do-gooder lefty school of justice. Making the offenders the victims.
Send the offenders to Australia.
Done.
@Cram Wood: No North Korea might be better. I may want to go to Australia some day.
At the minute prison is the best form of punishment we have, they did something wrong so we take away their liberty. Until something better comes along I’m fully satisfied.
have your say