Denis Landy (Labour)

I commend Senator Zappone on her achievement in having the loop included in the Seanad Chamber. As someone who suffers from a hearing disability, I have quite a lot of difficulty in this Chamber so I hope it will improve my ability to understand. Perhaps "understand" is the wrong word because sometimes one may not understand what is going on in the House regardless of whether one can hear it. At least I will be able to hear what is going on, so well done to Senator Zappone. I commend her on that.

I wish to raise two items. The first concerns the theft of overhead telephone cables by unscrupulous gangs. This is causing great difficulty, so I ask the Leader to bring it to the attention to the Minister for Justice and Equality in order that the Garda Síochána should take a greater interest in this matter. In my own area alone in recent months, telephone cables have been stolen in three locations. The effect of such thefts is serious for private houses and businesses that operate on the periphery of towns, particularly concerning the loss of Internet usage. On one such occasion, five businesses were out of operation for four days until Eircom could replace and repair the cables. We have moved away from the tradition whereby Eircom was the only company visible to the public through its vehicles. In recent years, many subcontractors have come on board. Consequently, no one takes any notice of an unmarked cherry-picker doing work at a telephone pole.