Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will do my best to see if I can represent the Acting Chairman here. With regard to broadband, I have major concerns with the Government's broadband plan. We know from conversations we have had with the Minister previously that it is likely the due date for broadband right across the State will be broken. There is no Government confirmation that this due date will be achieved. In five or six years time, there will still be sectors of Irish society and enterprise that will be cut off from what is the road network of modern society. We also know there is a danger because of the fact that there are two contracts on the island, that we could have one contract with a certain speed and capacity level and another contract with a different speed and content level. That means villages a distance of five or six miles apart could be operating on two different levels.

Regarding the post office sector, I spoke to a postmaster recently, based in a medium-sized town which is by no means a village, and he was of the view that transactions were collapsing within post offices around the country, especially as a result of fewer people drawing social welfare. That is obviously a good thing, but the essential point is that his wages are derived on the basis of transactions and those transactions were not there for him. Also, the contracts between the State and post offices were not facilitating viability. Is it the Government's plan to close further post offices? My understanding is that a number of post offices will close in the future.

See this speech in context