John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

Will the Leader arrange to have the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources attend the House as soon as possible to outline the initiatives he proposes as a replacement for the rural broadband scheme he scrapped two weeks ago? In the past two years, I have repeatedly raised the lack of broadband availability in rural areas. Two weeks ago, a business person from my area contacted an official in the Department only to find the latter was not aware the scheme had been scrapped the previous day by the Minister. Small businesses face real dangers in many parts of rural Ireland if they cannot access broadband.

Problems continue to arise in local authority housing with regard to provisions for people with disabilities. That issue should be considered in the context of Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 because, while we are providing units for social and affordable reasons, many are not fully accessible for people with disabilities. It would be useful if more units were accessible because many of those who have spent the longest time on housing waiting lists suffer from disabilities.