Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At this stage in the history of this Dáil, many of our constituents might think we are just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, especially given the stream of bad news from Brussels and Westminster in recent days. Last Thursday, in a brief intervention in which I called on the Taoiseach to come before the House, I did not get an opportunity to comment on the outgoing Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten. I have known Deputy Naughten since he entered Dáil Éireann. I knew his dad before that, the former Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Liam. Particularly since he became an Independent Member in 2011, Deputy Naughten has made significant contributions to this House and I know he will continue to do so, especially in the areas of health, social care and nursing homes. Many Independents, including myself, were somewhat indebted to Deputy Naughten in the 2011 to 2016 period, the austerity Government period, when he campaigned for better access to the national media for Independents, given that at that stage we had very significant support in the polls. Even in this morning's poll we still have significant support.

Obviously, I took strongly opposing views to Deputy Naughten's on many aspects of his brief in communications, climate change and the environment, especially in respect of the regulation of household waste collection, the regulation of mobile and fixed telecoms and climate change. I accept, however, that his great ambition was finally to achieve the full roll-out of broadband for the whole of our country. Given the history of telecoms in Ireland and the disgraceful findings of the Moriarty tribunal on the second mobile licence, however, it is wrong that any meetings were held by any Minister with a party to a critical public tender. A constituent of mine who has a good knowledge of telecoms and communications recently drew attention to the fact that we lack digital independence, given that our major mobile phone and broadband companies are now all controlled by foreign enterprises, foreign entities. The decade-long failure of the roll-out of rural broadband can always be traced back, as my colleague has said, to the privatisation of Eircom by the Ahern-McCreevy Fianna Fáil Government. That sale of our telecoms network was of course enthusiastically supported by Fine Gael. This and the continuing failure on the part of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to use our State assets to create a national mobile and fibre-optic broadband system are another two of the disastrous ongoing impacts of the blanket bank guarantee.

I wish the Minister, Deputy Bruton, my constituency colleague, well in his new portfolio but I think he is a Minister from the wrong party, given its history, to address seriously the national broadband roll-out and, as I said, Ireland's total lack of digital independence. In the Minister's stint in education he made no serious impact on pupil-teacher ratios, capitation grants, the achievement of teachers' pay equality - in Darndale this morning people drew my attention to the fact that we are still struggling for pay equality - or a better-funded third level sector. The Education (Admission to Schools) Bill is perhaps the Minister's only real legacy in education. I warmly congratulate the new Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, and wish him well. He is always a very pleasant colleague in this House, and I hope he will try to grasp those very difficult issues which his colleague, Deputy Bruton, avoided. I also wish Deputy Canney, Minister of State at the Departments of Rural and Community Development and Communications, Climate Action and Environment, well on his second stint, I think, in government, and Deputy Kyne well in his new portfolio.

Any restructuring of a Government makes us think how the Department Votes and portfolios could be better organised. For example, one of the mistakes the Government made recently was effectively to do away with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I did not agree with its policies, but the system of having a Minister for Finance and a separate Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform was a good one and could have been into the future. I hope people will look at this again, probably after the general election. We have had endless discussions about the justice portfolio and whether there are actually two Departments in the current Department. I believe there are. Back in the mid-1990s, we had a Minister for Justice and a Minister for Equality and Law Reform and we could see a better organisation. Finally, in defence we have seen the recent demonstration by our soldiers, sailors and Air Corps personnel and their relatives. Over the past seven or eight years, defence has effectively not been at senior Cabinet level, we have not had a Department of Defence, and pay and conditions have fallen very sharply. Perhaps Deputies should reflect on this and how we could better organise our portfolios after the general election.

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