Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would hate to pull the Minister of State on one of her own comments. She said the churches are open online. I have spoken to people from Granagh, Ballingarry, Croom and Patrickswell, and I can keep naming places, who have told me their Internet service breaks down every day because of the failure of the roll-out of broadband. The churches are not open online. They are not there. Last week, a funeral was interrupted four or five times. People were trying to listen to a mass for a loved one but they could not do it. There has been full attendance here today. The distance is 2 m. Work out the square metres and open up our churches and let them be run faithfully as they were. There were no incidents in a church. There are ten in a church for a funeral and six for a wedding. For God's sake, it does not make sense. The Minister of State contradicted herself. The Internet is not there for people in rural areas. The numbers of people who go to mass in small rural communities are small anyway. There might only be 20 or 25 people.

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