Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will say this again. The vast majority of telecommunications companies in this country have had some role in this procurement process at some stage over its course. If I were the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the effect of what it has been alleged I should have done would be that I would not meet the farm organisations from the day of my appointment until next month or the month after when this process had been finalised. A great deal of work needs to be done in the telecommunications area. The biggest issue we encountered as public representatives going around the country was broadband coverage but the second biggest was mobile phone coverage. Quite a number of the people involved in mobile phone networks in this country were also involved in this process. I decided in the negotiations on the programme for Government, when I did not know I would be in this or any other role, that we should establish a mobile phone and broadband task force to unlock many of the bottlenecks within the system and we have done that. The Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, and I have been successful in addressing mobile phone black spots, wireless deployment, mobile broadband and getting access to State ducting and infrastructure.

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