Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I too would like to join with others in the House in congratulating the Leader on his engagement. We can all look forward to a date in Cork in the not too distant future.

On a more serious note, along with many other Members, I have raised the issue of the future of rural Ireland many times. This, unfortunately, would appear to have fallen on deaf ears, as proved by two media reports this morning. One report concerned ambulance cover in rural Ireland and the fact that six counties in this State only have one ambulance covering the entire night-time period. Other counties only have two ambulances covering the entire 24-hour period, seven days a week.

One of those counties is County Monaghan. As I travelled down from Monaghan to Dublin this morning I listened to a lady from Donegal giving a very graphic and emotional account of how her mother lay on the side of a road in the Inishowen Peninsula for an hour and a half waiting for an ambulance. This was three and a half years ago. She commented that it was promised back then that something would be done, but three and a half years on the available service, or should I say lack of service, has still not progressed. That is very disappointing. She also made the point that there were three fire stations on the Inishowen Peninsula but only one ambulance.

What this highlights is the need for further and immediate investment in the ambulance service. We should perhaps also look at training our fire station personnel as first responders so that they could go to the scene of an accident, wherever that accident might be, and stabilise the individual until an ambulance arrives.

The other issue is that of broadband. Again, this has been raised by many Members and is a big issue for rural Ireland. The Minister, Deputy Naughten, now tells us that the promised broadband roll-out will be delayed by a further 12 months. It has now reached the stage where any broadband announcement from this Government is a complete joke which, unfortunately, nobody from rural Ireland finds funny. Be it in the farming sector, in small business, or even just schoolchildren doing their homework, rural Ireland needs broadband. We are desperately trying to get that broadband rolled out as soon as possible.

I ask the Leader to invite both the Minister for Health and the Minister for Communications into the House to address these issues.