Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak on an issue which I previously raised in 2013 around the use of old telephone boxes as locations for defibrillators that would be easily identifiable in a town or a city. I want to congratulate the Heart of Killarney project which has actually reconstructed a telephone box and installed a defibrillator. It would be a really good idea to replicate this around the State. Unfortunately, since I raised this matter initially - and I had done quite a bit of work on the proposal at the time - many of the telephone boxes have been destroyed. Local authorities do not always know what to do with unused telephone boxes and this would be a really good use. They could be constructed at a relatively cheap cost. I am sure they would be easy to design and construct. It would mean there would be 24 hour access to a defibrillator by way of calling the emergency services so a person could be allowed access outside of nine to five hours. People might say that the place for the defibrillators is on GAA premises but they also need to be in other areas. It would be a really good idea and it is linked to the issue of technology and broadband which, I suppose, is part of the reason telephone boxes have become obsolete.

I join with Senators Rose Conway-Walsh, Colm Burke and Joe O'Reilly who raised the broadband issue. I was shocked to hear the statistics and the fact that there are some serious black spots around the State. Children in rural communities are being denied access to vital online mental health services and so on. I like Senator Burke's idea that broadband provision be included in planning permissions because it is a basic, fundamental necessity that we have broadband throughout the State. As Senator Joe O'Reilly has said, we need to get the matter to the top of the agenda.