Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Alex White. Up to 67% of all households had access to broadband connections last year, a figure that has not changed much in four years. The Minister correctly identified in his broadband launch late last year that rural areas needed State intervention for this to be rectified. I welcome that development.

The Minister will note that the latest IDA Ireland figures indicate that it is missing its own targets for delivering investments outside Dublin and Cork. In other words, rural Ireland is missing out. While I accept that there is an issue in persuading young highly qualified Google employees that rural living is for them, without proper infrastructure in these areas, that job is made even more difficult. Even forgetting the Googles of this world, people trying to start or maintain a small local business are at a distinct disadvantage. By infrastructure I mean constant reliable power, clean water and high-speed broadband. While the first two of these matters are in hand, access to high-speed broadband is a problem for over 30% of the population. The broadband penetration rate is lower here than in any highly developed economy and elsewhere in Europe. It lags behind that for countries such as Latvia, Hungary and Poland, while in Iceland there is a 95% penetration rate.

The Government task force's report in 2012 identified these problems and also indicated the flow of benefits if the situation was rectified, including economic growth and job creation, as well as providing a significant boost for small and medium-sized enterprises. Someone with a small business whose connection fails every time the wind changes direction is not only at risk of being seen as unprofessional by his or her customers but his or her business is unlikely to succeed. In addition, there is the issue of education. Schools and universities are tending more towards the use of the Internet as a means of communication and a learning tool. What hope has someone in a poorly covered area of upskilling with, for instance, the Open University if his or her Internet connection depends on the vagaries of the weather?

Another issue is rural isolation. A large number of online tools are available to combat it, with many websites offering advice and advertising meetings, chat rooms, etc, but these are only accessible with great difficulty for a large percentage of the population. In a recent article a businessperson was interviewed in an area in which there was only satellite Internet access. A farm animal had interfered with the dish and subsequently there was no access for week. As was said, one would not see it on "Father Ted". That is the reality for a large segment of the population.

We talk about being a high-tech society, but this is only a myth for one third of the population. While I welcome the Minister’s intervention, I want to see a concrete plan in place, with timeframes and budgets, a tangible plan about which I could tell the people living rural Galway and south Mayo.

I welcome the appointment of Mr. Bobby Kerr to chair the important review to be conducted by the An Post business development group. Post offices provide the largest retail network in the country, with 1,150 offices, employing 3,700 people. Up to 1,100 of these offices are operated by postmasters who operate locally based SMEs, providing employment, facilitating economic activity and providing for community engagement. A world class information technology system is in place in all post offices, with even the smallest of rural post office been technically capable of providing the same services as the GPO in Dublin.

It is vital now more than ever that the post office network be supported. Up to 30% of all post office business is derived from delivering social welfare cash payments. The State is moving towards electronic payment, while utilities are moving towards electronic billing and bill payment. Stamp sales are falling, as more and more business is transacted electronically. As a result, the network is under significant pressure. It needs to be reiterated that a rural post office is not just a commercial office but somewhat of a social service. People meet and greet in it and it offers a service to communities where it might be the only bricks and mortar service for miles. We have recently seen the closure of the only bank in a midlands town. The banks are retrenching their branch networks and An Post could be facing a similar situation. The Government needs to commit to enacting whatever practical suggestions come from the review as a matter of urgency. The banks want to close branches. Why not let An Post act as an agent for them, for instance? We need competition among the banks. Has the board of An Post considered seeking a banking licence to allow it to carry out more current account-type transactions? Other services the post office network could handle include motor tax renewals, driver licence renewals, rates payments, rent and other local authority payments, lodgements and withdrawal services for credit unions, hospital charges, electronic form generation, insurance quotations and pension savings. These are all services that could breathe life into a troubled network.

The Government is right to review both of these areas. These are issues that significantly affect those living in rural Ireland. We have a roadmap to rectify the deficiencies in broadband coverage and a review which is shortly to be completed of how the network of post offices could be supported. What we need are concrete plans for broadband provision and a total commitment from the Government to implement the recommendations from the review of An Post.