asked the Minister for Energy the reason provisions in the western drainage package designed to assist the installation of electricity on farms have not been applied to islands off the west coast of Ireland.

In 1979 the Government directed the ESB to make electricity supply available to the offshore islands of Clare and Inishturk, County Mayo, Inisboffin, County Galway and Dursey, County Cork without capital cost to the inhabitants and at electricity rates no greater than those prevailing on the mainland. The Government directed that similar benefits in regard to electricity rates should be extended to those Gaeltacht islands which already had electricity generation systems installed. It is open to the inhabitants of those islands off the west coast which were not covered by the terms of these directives to apply for grant aid under the western package electrification scheme. To date no such applications have been received in my Department. Any application which is received will be considered as to eligibility under the rules of the scheme.