Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The reality is that few people in rural areas use public telephones because most of them have a mobile telephone. From speaking to people in these areas, I am aware that this is not the service with which they are most concerned. What people are shouting about is the provision of broadband. With the announcement of the rural broadband scheme, I have no doubt that companies such as Eircom will now provide broadband at a rate of knots where they would not have done so before. The difference now is that we have engendered competition in the market. I am confident that nine out of ten people in rural areas would gladly swap a public telephone box for the availability of broadband. In the modern world, the latter is 100 times more important. People will fight for that rather than for the retention of telephone boxes which are no longer used.

Likewise, I am of the view that there is no viable future for post offices in which all the processing is still done manually and where there is a turnover of only €5,000, €10,000 or €15,000 per year. There is no livelihood to be had from such an enterprise. To oppose any consolidation in this age of the car, mobile telephone and other modern technology is to destroy the viability of the remaining post offices. There must be a balanced approach in this. We cannot defend services whose day has gone. I would much rather seek out those services whose future is coming. I have always been greatly supportive of the credit unions, for example, because they can provide a five-day or seven-day per week service.

There is no doubt that small retail businesses in rural areas are in trouble. However, there is another side to it, as the Deputy will know from his own constituency. I am sure very little passes him by in his constituency. It is significant that the first Tesco store in Ballinrobe opened recently, while another huge supermarket is being built on the other side of town by a person who previously had a smaller supermarket in the town.

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