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

Since 2011 we have been hearing about broadband, seen programmes on television and still it is no different. The Government has failed the people of rural Ireland to put it very bluntly. Now it must do one thing or the other, for the simple reason that people are fed up hearing about broadband and I commend Deputy Sherlock and the Labour Party on bringing this motion in. It is approximately our 20th motion. We will all vote tomorrow and what will happen, damn all. We will not have broadband this Christmas or probably next Christmas because the will does not seem to be there.

Whoever wrote this contract or started agreeing it would want to go to a mart with a farmer because anyone who ever got paid to do something he or she did not do is very unusual. If Eir goes down the road and puts in broadband where the other company is supposed to do it, the other company will get paid for doing it, even though it never went near it. In any economics, that does not stack up. We can keep on about broadband. We should own the infrastructure, we should not be giving an open cheque to somebody. It is going around in circles and we are getting nowhere.

We need to do one thing or the other because it is now heading into 2020. For nine years, the Government has presided over this mess of promises to the people, no more than many other things, and never delivered. The people of rural Ireland have lost faith in the Government in the line of broadband so it should do one thing or the other and be honest with people. If it is going to sign a contract it should get on and do it and if not, it should come out and say so and let us go to the polls and face the people.

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