Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To pick up on the Minister's last point, we need to make it easier for communities to spend that money. Communities are struggling to draw down that money. I know the Minister has made some changes to LEADER but we need to make it easier across all the programmes.

This question is in respect of the national broadband plan and mobile phone coverage and the role in the Minister's Department of the regional telecommunications development unit. His colleagues are preparing this for the launch of the new national broadband plan. We keep being told about the access of population to broadband but as the Minister and I know, that does not necessarily wash in a lot of areas in our region in terms of access to broadband. I want to know what involvement the Department of Rural and Community Development has in the planning for the national broadband plan and also its engagement around mobile phone black spots, which are becoming a bigger issue in rural areas.

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