Mary Heanue, Inis Turk; John Walsh, Bere Island; Simon Murray, Inis Boffin; Aisling Moran, Sherkin Island and Mairtin O Mealid, Cape Clear met to discuss a move by two government departments to temporarily avert funding cuts for development offices. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times

English-speaking island communities say they are not one bit happy with a move by two government departments to temporarily avert funding cuts for development offices.

Representatives from nine offshore islands, who had to organise boat trips and bed nights in Dublin to make their case, said that a promise by two ministers today to extend funding for three months of next year was a sop and insufficient.

Some hours before the islanders press conference, Minister of State for the Gaeltacht Joe McHugh announced that funding for non-Gaeltacht islands would continue to the end of March 2015.

He promised that in the meantime, both his department and the Department of Environment would examine ways of supporting the continuation of these vital island structures and services.

The islands have called on Minister for Environment 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 community buildings, festivals and tourism projects.

Inishbofin off Co Galway, Inishturk and Clare Island off Co Mayo, and the Cork islands of Bere, Sherkin, Dursey, Whiddy, Long and Heir are the main communities affected by the funding cut this December.

The island development programme put in place by a Fine Gael-led coalition government from the mid-1990s was discontinued in 2009.

A 1996 interdepartmental report on islands chaired by former Fine Gael junior minister Donal Carey had identified the Leader programme as the mechanism for supporting the programme.

Since 2009, English and Irish-speaking islands have availed of separate funding streams.

Originally posted here:

Islanders reject ministerial move to resolve funding cuts row