#islandnation – On this edition of THIS ISLAND NATION podcast I question Government policy towards two aspects of the marine sphere and ask how much confidence can be placed in the much-hyped plan to create Ocean Wealth writes Tom MacSweeney.
Several times the operation of Howth Harbour in County Dublin has been raised with me and on the programme I interview a young marine engineer who claims that the Department of the Marine has, for the past three years, been obstructing his attempts to start a marine engineering repair business there which could create jobs. But, the Department doesn't want such a facility in Howth, he claims. So what is the reality of the Government's promise to create more maritime jobs, if the Department responsible for the marine sphere is not in tune with that plan?
Add to all of that the situation in which nine offshore islands, which don't speak Irish, find that the Minister for the Environment has decided to cut off funding for community development offices on the islands and you might just wonder what is going on in this island nation? The money involved is €600,000 – not a lot in the context of overall Government spending and the Islands' Federation, the Chairman of which I talk to on the programme, maintains that the ending of support for the creation of jobs on the islands and the provision of other essential social and technological supports, could create depopulation on some of them, off the Cork and Western coastlines.
Such is the way aspects of the maritime sphere are being treated these days.
