More power to you, Minister tells islanders

The residents of Inisturk Island were officially wired up today by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Éamon Ó Cuív.

The island, located nine miles off the Mayo coast, has been finally connected to the National Grid as part of the islands electrification programme.

Launching the €200,000 project, Mr Ó Cuív said: "With electricity comes light, with light comes hope and with hope comes new life".

The island's 85 inhabitants can for the first time install electric showers, storage heating and electric cookers.

"I have no doubt that the provision of three-phase electricity to Inisturk will change the lives of the people who there for the better," the Minister said.

"I hope that, quite apart from providing a greater level comfort to these islanders, that this electricity upgrade will breathe a whole new life into this island and into the lives of the people who live here," he added.

Islander Mr Bernard Heaney, who remembers the introduction of single-phase electricity in 1986, believes the upgrade will benefit the whole community.

"Because only one generator was in service at any one time and the island operator manually switched between generators on a twice-daily basis, our electric alarm clocks and video timers had to be reset every day". It's only a small thing, but this sort of change will make a huge difference to us all," he said.

The ESB hopes to connect five additional islands to the National Grid by cable this year including two islands off Clifden (Inisturk South and Inishturbot); Inisbarra Island near Lettermullan off Co Galway; Foynes Island off Co Limerick; and Inis Mhic Cionaith off Carraroe, Co Galway.