Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I am so much in agreement with Deputy Ring today that I am beginning to be worried. The Deputy is aware of my passion for keeping people in rural areas, I have devoted a lifetime to it. He and I see eye to eye on this issue. All I want is modern services. My point, however, is that it is not conducive to the best interests of rural areas to seek always to protect services which are no longer used by anybody.

I note the Deputy's points regarding broadband. The national broadband scheme is being rolled out. I understand that in one area of the Deputy's constituency, the maps do not cover one area where there is adequate broadband cover. I have no doubt that my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan, will look into that issue.

Deputy Ring asked me about hub towns. I had two choices in this respect, to proceed the way I did or to proceed another way based on OECD statistics on population density. The option I chose has by far the less negative impact of the two. If I had taken the other option, it would have resulted in a worse position. I had to take this option because of consideration of what is covered by the definition of rural.

If I worked in a Leader company or lived in a rural community, I do not know if I would be happy if a large proportion of the allocation for rural development was being invested in hub towns such as Castlebar, Ballina, Drogheda and so on. If the allocation is for rural development, let us ensure it is invested in real rural development, which will benefit quite sizeable towns. I am not sure whether the major county towns should be the big beneficiaries of rural development moneys.

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