Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Things will get worse rather than better because we will see the 3G network being switched off. It is the one on which many people in rural Ireland rely. Our emergency services rely on an outdated Tetra system that must be mothballed anyway. The difficulty is that we cannot rely on the Department of communications. We must remember this is the Department with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, in charge of it but the same Department and ComReg are not prepared to ensure we have decent mobile phone coverage on our rail network. We are encouraging people to take the train to work and use public transport more but we are not even prioritising putting mobile phone coverage on our rail network throughout the country. The focus group reporting to ComReg has the lowest priority. If the Department of communications will not give this priority, the only Department that can do so is the Department of Rural and Community Development. I ask the Minister, through her good offices and the task force, to ensure we prioritise rural Ireland and not the targets that have been set by the Commission in urban Brussels.

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