Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join Senators Gallagher and Conway-Walsh in addressing the broadband question. Some Senators may have heard on "Today with Seán O'Rourke" a businessperson from Keenagh in County Longford moving out of their current premises and moving very significant jobs from the village of Keenagh owing to the absence of broadband. In Cavan and Monaghan there are villages and whole tracts without adequate broadband. I propose to the Leader that we should have a constant monitoring of this. It is one of the most current and immediate issues we face.We should debate it regularly as a stock-take, so to speak, and invite the relevant people to discuss it. Will the Leader arrange for this soon?

I have constantly raised the need for the decentralisation of jobs and a regionalisation of inward investment. The only silver lining to the Brexit dark cloud is that we can now do that, but only if all rural areas have broadband. We must bring high-speed broadband to all towns and villages. It is the country's starkest infrastructural deficit at the moment. Will the Cathaoirleach and the Leader ensure that it is placed at the top of the agenda? We discuss Seanad reform constantly, but what people really want is Seanad relevance, and nothing could be more relevant than addressing this great deficit.