Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too am glad to speak about this very important issue. I acknowledge the Minister's presence. This issue is as important as rural electrification was fadó fadó. We had very little at that time but we did have imaginative people and a good vision.

The late great Canon Hayes, a founder member of Muintir na Tíre, said it was better to light a candle than to curse the dark. He was instrumental in having it rolled out to areas in County Tipperary and other parts of the country. He came from Limerick.

I was involved in the talks with the Minister when we were all Independent Deputies after being elected almost two years ago. They lasted a long time. The Minister decided to catch the wagon back to his old home ground of the Fine Gael Party and I wish him well. I have engagement with him and, in fairness, appreciate that he briefs rural Independent Deputies almost weekly, but we had no briefing on this issue. I know that it is probably a bombshell that hit him, but we need to be briefed on it. He needs to give us the facts. I have serious concerns about where we are. I have said at meetings in his office - he probably thought I was a little harsh - that I had no faith in the pronouncements he was making because I had been listening to them for too long. I had listened to them when I was in Fianna Fáil. We had roll-out after roll-out when I came into the House ten and a half years ago in 2007. We then had more, as well as promises and everything else. We have had more roll-outs than we have had dinners. It is all poppycock and a farce.

It beggars belief that in 2018 we cannot deliver broadband to almost every house and that rural Ireland must again be left behind on the hind tit, as I said one time to former Deputy Pat Rabbitte. He was speaking about something being as useful as tits on a bull and I told him about Mrs Murphy's cow who had lost her two front tits. She had got caught in wire and been left with a dudeen of a tit. That is where we in rural Ireland are now and it is not fair or acceptable and the Minister cannot stand over it. I wish him well in his portfolio, but he was given the poisoned chalice by his old friend and sometimes foe, the former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny. He was also given responsibility for post offices. The Minister, Deputy Michael Ring, had responsibility for them but could not wait to get rid of them. The issue was too hot to handle and he shoved them over on top of the Minister. He did a Pontius Pilate and gave them to the Minister. It was another nightmare. Deputy Enda Kenny knew well that this was not going to happen because he had been around a lot longer than me. He has been here for almost 40 years. As I said, we have had roll-out after roll-out. It is like the Rolling Stones - roll on Monday; it is just not happening. The rich pickings have been taken. All of the companies involved during the years got rich pickings and milked them for what they were worth and then left these shores. I was a backbencher supporting a Government and that is what I learned. I have been burned so many times on this issue and we all have a share of the blame, including me, but it is just not good enough.

I salute Eircom, the old Department of Posts and Telegraphs and the late Albert Reynolds. I met him at a Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in 1979 when he announced new measures. At the time people could not access a telephone service and there were only 20 or 30 telephones in a parish. People also had to dial the post office. I salute the postmistresses who sat up all night to answer the telephones and put people through. We have come a long way since. The late Albert Reynolds modernised the service with great vision, passion and enthusiasm. He was businessman of renown. His family no longer owns the business, but it is flourishing.

We are now in a situation where we have got bogged down in red tape, procurement rules and God only knows what. The con artists are milking us dry. They are the ones who were given the job of rolling out this service, but they left these shores after they had taken the rich pickings. They had no bother in providing broadband in the cities which have everything, even as far down the road as Naas and other big towns, but in country areas we have nothing. It is like the Third World in many parts of rural Ireland that I try to represent.

I heard some news tonight from the Minister's constituency, or perhaps it was Sligo. It is totally frustrating to have to try to run a business without broadband; it cannot be done. We know that we have to have the modern tools of trade. I am a businessman and we have to have the most up-to-date equipment as otherwise we will not be wanted. That is tough, but it is the name of the game and the way it is. There is the seeking of tenders and people must pony up and seek them or else there will be penalty clauses, rightly so.

With regard to the giving of Government contracts, let us take the national children's hospital as an example. I do not want to stray from the issue, but at the start the cost was €400 million. Now it is €1.4 billion and the hospital has not reached any height. It will never be finished. We are a soft touch. The Government, Government agencies and the HSE are a soft touch for the cowboys and cowgirls and the con artists and this is clear evidence. It is as clear as the nose on the Minister's face and mine. We have been conned and robbed and the ones who are picking up the can are taxpayers, including people living in rural Ireland. In some places in urban Ireland there is no broadband or even a modicum of service. One does not need to be an expert to know this.

I salute those involved in Eir - I knew many of them - who in bad weather and poor conditions brought telephone lines and equipment over mountains. What do we have now? Two weeks ago a woman contacted me because she had no telephone service since Storm Ophelia. Thankfully, it is has been restored, but that was scandalous. I salute the minority of staff left working for Eir, formerly Eircom and before that the Department of Post and Telegraphs. A good friend of mine, Mr. Paddy Kelly, carries out repairs in a European Parliament constituency, but they cannot be made as there is only a skeleton staff. I used to do hedge cutting and hedges could not be cut as telephone lines were lying on ditches. Poles also fell out onto the road. It was a shambles. The company was sold off to Eir by a Fianna Fáil Government. It plucked, picked and milked it. It was sabotaged and now it is no more. We are a soft touch.

I do not know whether T. K. Whitaker is alive or dead. He was such an inspiration, with Canon Hayes and others.

See this speech in context