Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with Deputies Dooley, Aindrias Moynihan and O'Keeffe.

The biggest issue in my constituency of County Limerick, and throughout the country at the most recent general election and, I want to emphasise, every day since, is the lack of adequate high-speed broadband connectivity. It is impacting on many communities throughout my constituency in Limerick. If I were to list them out it would take the whole night. It is fair to say this has been interpreted by these communities, people and businesses as another attack on rural Ireland. This is how it is perceived, rightly or wrongly, and it behoves all of us to try to find a common sense solution as soon as possible because it cannot pertain. We can see the pattern of the previous Government and this Government with regard to the withdrawal of front-line services from our communities in rural Ireland, including post offices, Garda stations, credit unions, public health clinics and GP clinics.

I refer to the whole unravelling of services. The Government is telling people to do business with it on the online platforms, including applying for medical cards, passports and basic farm payments and dealing with Revenue, but it is failing to roll out basic broadband services. It is simply not good enough.

The motion tabled by Deputy Dooley asking for an independent review in parallel with the continuation of the process is the way to go. The population needs to have assurances this is going to be dealt with properly once and for all. The motion should be supported by everybody in the House and, most importantly, by the Government.

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