Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will come to the House today to discuss the Broadcasting Bill 2008. However, another issue for which he is responsible, namely, broadband access, is far more important for the majority of people in the country, and this House should do something about it. My brother runs a wireless broadband company which can provide exactly the same download speeds as Eircom and can provide broadband access in the most isolated rural areas. This is a rural issue as well as a broadband access issue. The quality of broadband service is often disputed by individuals who may have a vested interest. This House needs to debate broadband urgently to provide an opportunity to Members, who represent the entire country, to inform ourselves on the level of broadband access throughout the country in order that we can put together a report on the urban and rural areas with excellent or poor broadband access. The lack of broadband is a matter of major concern to many people and it is not progressing fast enough. This House should show leadership on the issue.

Professor Tom Keane, the new so-called "cancer tsar", has made the most insulting and disparaging remarks about doctors. He claims doctors refer their own family members to hospitals in Dublin when they are ill. This is an incredible charge to make. Deputy James Reilly and I are both doctors and close family members of both of us have had cancer and were treated at the nearest available hospital. We did not deliberately send them to a hospital to which we would not send our own patients. That remark should be withdrawn immediately by Professor Keane because it is being quoted left, right and centre and the implication is doctors provide one level of service for family members and another for their patients, which is wrong and incredibly insulting. I would like to point out to Professor Keane that patients from other areas——