Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the comment on the 1916 commemorations. The citizens' assembly will consist of 100 people, with no politicians present, and an appropriate chairperson. It will, in the first instance, consider the question of the eighth amendment. We had Government approval a couple of weeks back to implement this commitment in the programme for Government. At this week's meeting on Tuesday, we had approval for use of the electoral register. The next stage is to appoint, under proper conditions, a polling company that will objectively choose people based on gender, age and location to make up the 100 people on the assembly. The original intention was the assembly would be set up and running by November, but I expect to be able to bring that forward by a month. We have to go through a clear and objective process, as was applied before the Constitutional Convention. Authorisation was given by the Government on Tuesday for use of the electoral register to choose those people, and the process is now under way. We expect to have it up and running a month earlier than was originally intended.

With regard to the Department dealing with arts, heritage, regional, rural and Gaeltacht development, the allocation of tendering for broadband, for example, would be handled by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. It is a requirement that there be a county task force in each case to roll out the consequence of the allocation of the tender. In other words, this concerns what will happen in Laois, Clare, Donegal or any county. It concerns the process by which the provision of broadband capacity can be rolled out, for example. There is a need for task forces in every county to do that. There has been good development of what could be a template in County Cavan, and we are still looking at how to spread that across the country. The same applies in other areas, and one can draw from different Departments for budgets to fulfil the Department's remit.