Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Bacik's call for the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to come to the House to discuss legislation on domestic violence. I commend Safe Ireland and the other organisations that organised the conference on domestic violence but unfortunately I could not attend. It would be timely for the Tánaiste to come here as we come up to the 15 days of action opposing violence against women.

Today we have seen another report on the lack of broadband in rural areas. The report by the comparison website, switcher.ie, has confirmed what many of us who live and work in rural areas have known for a long time, namely, that broadband coverage and connection speeds are wholly inadequate in rural areas. Drimnagh in Dublin has a connection speed that was up to 36 times faster than that in rural areas. The national broadband plan was launched in 2012. Recently we learned that the procurement contract will not be signed until 2017. However, the Minister recently failed to confirm the 2017 date, meaning that the completion date may now be put back to 2022. Every delay in the roll-out of the plan prevents small businesses from setting up or expanding and denies real people opportunities.

To concentrate the wonderful minds in the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil Government, it is now time for businesses that do not have the minimum 100 Mbps to get an exemption from paying rates. The economic apartheid caused by leaving whole swathes of Ireland, including small towns, without this essential means of communication is devastating. In my case it takes the best part of six months to secure even the basic communication tools from my Mayo office.

The severe social exclusion imposed on individuals, families and communities as a result of not having adequate broadband is intolerable. Government services and information are blocked from reaching the population of rural areas because they cannot access the Internet. It means that people cannot reliably access online banking or pay bills online. This is important in a climate where many utilities have almost entirely switched to online payment systems.

We want immediate action on rural broadband. We need the national broadband plan to be commenced urgently. It should start at the remotest rural areas and work towards the towns. I call for an urgent debate on the issue of social and economic apartheid as a result of the deprivation caused by inadequate broadband speeds in rural areas.