James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am aware of the actions in the task force and I am aware that 2018 is the date by which those actions are due to be completed. It is my and my party's view that the timeline is too late and that we need to identify the areas of coverage far in advance of that and to do so immediately. We are 20 years into having mobile phones as common currency and yet we still do not know what areas have comprehensive coverage and which do not. It is a basic commodity. We talk about the roll out of broadband and the roll out of 4G services and more recent technologies but we do not even have mobile phone coverage yet in many parts of the island. Until we understand where the gaps are, how can we begin to tackle it? People experience dropped calls and patchy coverage. People are almost offended by some of the campaigns telling them about the 4G services they can start to enjoy when they cannot even get 3G. They cannot even get 1G in terms of calls. In north-west Kildare in my constituency, which is not a million miles from Dublin, it is a problem the way it is in the west, south west and other parts of the country. We need to bring forward this review. We need to look at the coverage maps. We need to do it in 2017 and sooner rather than later.

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