A report on the future of Great Blasket Island in Co Kerry before the Minister for Arts, Culture, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, outlines an urgent need for conservation work on the island's buildings, many of them the homes of writers such as Peig Sayers, Muiris Ó Suilleabháin and Tomás Ó Criomhthain.
The report, by Kerry County Council with consultants Brady Shipman Martin, also says that over-development of the Great Blasket is undesirable. It rules out plans for a campsite, but says limited new development away from the village may in fact be needed.
The island has continued to deteriorate since the last of the islanders left almost 50 years ago, the report states.
The recommendations are the result of a forum set up by Kerry county manager Mr Martin Nolan at the invitation of Ms de Valera. A team from the forum travelled to Springfield, Massachusetts, in the US to consult the direct descendants of the islanders. There has been much wrangling over the future of the island between State, locals and An Blascaod Mór Teoranta, the company which owns four-fifths of the island. This culminated in a Supreme Court decision in 1997 that The Great Blasket Act of 1989, under which the island was to be acquired by the State and made a national park, was unconstitutional.
A vacuum has developed since, with virtually no State input and the major owners the only providers of facilities for the public. There is now broad consensus that most of the island is likely to remain in private ownership, the forum has found.
"Acquisition of the island by a public authority is not an objective at the present time and therefore is not a realistic prospect in the short to medium term," it states.
However, the attitude of the owners to agree in practical terms to the use of the lands and properties in much the same way as if the lands and properties were a national park operated by the State comes in for strong praise as "a significant step forward".
All parties agree that the island should be proposed for inclusion on the UNESCO world heritage list sites. The island's written culture of Irish as well as its traditional dwellings and unique natural environment make it an ideal candidate, it is felt.
There is also consensus on the importance of the Irish language on the island, with access restriction and an overall management structure proposed. Access is to be restricted to 400 people a day, the report recommends, with the number to be reviewed regularly.
Recommendations to the forum for the writers' houses include the restoration of Ó Criomhthain's house as a centre of prose and poetry, Peig's house to be restored for storytelling, and Ó Suilleabháin's house to be a centre for music and dance.
Submissions from 66 parties including Dúchas, An Taisce, tourism bodies, locals and descendants of the islanders as well as the majority owners were received.
Ms de Valera has not set a deadline for her decision. She has just received the report, a spokesman for her Department said this weekend.