Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the motion. I have been here for four years. This is about the 20th time we have discussed rural broadband during Private Members' business yet the circus goes on. This has supposedly been coming to rural areas since 2012. I am from a rural area. I worry about competence in respect of what is happening. I am not saying it directly to the Minister because he is not long in the job but if someone has been trying to do something for seven years and is unable to deliver, serious questions need to be asked of the people involved in the process. Do children in rural areas not deserve to have proper broadband to allow them to do their work at school or are we talking about a different Ireland? Is there a yuppie Ireland that will have everything beaming out of it and another part that does not deserve the same type of coverage? I do not and never will accept what the Minister has come out with and what previous Ministers have come out with when Eir got the contract.

Deputy Martin Kenny and I stood beside Department officials at a meeting in 2016.

On that day, they told us that Eir had tried to get these 350,000 households three times. It was stated to us at that time that the company would not get them because, if it did, the good apples would be gone from the tree. That has now caused this fiasco. Whether the EU wrote to me or came to me, I could not give two damns about it. What are we going to do now? We are caught by the short and curlies because of this so-called letter that came from Europe. As usual, being good politicians, we Irish will tell the EU we will do what it says and it is the master. What this means is that a few more years have passed and rural areas right around this country are still left without broadband. Is there a will to do this? That is the question I ask.

In fairness to Deputies Catherine Murphy and Shortall, what we need to get out of tonight is what they and every Deputy here deserve. I heard in October that there would be an announcement shortly. I heard the same in November. Every month goes by without an announcement. Let us get down to the nuts and bolts of broadband. If the Minister waits another month, we will be left in a difficult situation. Anyone who knows how broadband wires work knows that hedges must be cut. The hedge-cutting season will be over at the end of March so it will be another budget before this work must be allowed for. The way this is going on is totally wrong. The Minister should come clean one way or the other. If he is not fit to deliver rural broadband, it is time for everyone in this Dáil to do something. We will win the vote on Thursday but what will it do? It will do nothing. There will be a feel-good factor. What will it do to the Government, however? The time is coming when politicians will have to either deliver or get out of office.

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