Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I appreciate the Minister's clarification and I appreciate the work in which he is involved. There are rural areas with no masts and where the dongle can be used on a laptop as well. That has all been acknowledged. The Minister is correct to say that these are private sector players and that he does not have a direct role in what they invest, but we have a role through ComReg. Consumers need the utmost protection in terms of the money they invest when signing up to a service provider, and in the service that they receive. Many will argue that they are not getting service in certain areas, such as in parts of Donegal, Monaghan and Kildare.

We have to examine whether ComReg's objectives to analyse mobile phone coverage through the methodology of the population base is good enough. We can be open about this conversation and it is good to have an ongoing analysis. It is important to see if the Department of Justice and Equality is open minded to use Garda station masts as piggy backs for mobile phone services, rather than have new masts built. I know that RTE masts have been used by different service providers.

Can the Minister analyse the methodology used by ComReg to measure the broadband coverage? The advertising literature of Vodafone and O2 claim that they have 99% coverage. That is the case according to their rules, but in reality they do not.

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