John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending and making their presentations. They have been very informative for us, as members representing the people, in terms of what is happening. I hope that ComReg and the Departmental officials are informed of our perspective in that it is welcome that this is happening but it is not happening soon enough. I know they are aware of that. There is an acute problem in rural areas as summed up in the members' contributions. Another point made was that the targets should be set based on geography or population density, and that priority should be given as soon as possible to areas not on the radar of the commercial companies that would be interested or could afford to do it.

The other strong point made by all contributors is that the mobile phone coverage has disimproved. That is something to which all of us would like to see a solution. I am summarising, but the presentations were very worthwhile.

We are looking forward to representatives of the industry coming before the committee also, and perhaps the Minister at some stage. It is about trying to solve this problem together. It is not about accusing anyone of anything but highlighting the issues that are live for people throughout the country, particularly in rural areas. Senator Coghlan highlighted the black spots in urban areas also. We do not have a monopoly in terms of some of those black spots. I thank all the witnesses.