Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am very disappointed for the 500,000 homes and businesses across Ireland who will not be in receipt of high-speed broadband. It was indicated over the weekend that the Minister was pausing the roll-out of broadband. He said it was being done on the basis that there will be an audit of the process to date.

It is as clear as night follows day that the process is flawed. The Government needs to be pragmatic, whether to start the process again or involve a State body to roll out the broadband network. We need to do a great deal more for small businesses around the country, especially in light of Brexit. The least a small business can have is access to reliable broadband but with Brexit on the horizon, as well as much uncertainty, not having broadband is a significant disadvantage to small businesses nationwide.

Second, I wish to raise the leniency of sentencing that occurred yesterday in the case of a man who assaulted his wife by hitting her twice and who received a suspended sentence. Obviously his plea of mitigation was not reported in the newspapers, however the facts that were presented were shocking. It puts a fear in the minds of victims that if they go through the courts and help the Garda in prosecuting such offences, the perpetrators may be treated as leniently. I think we need to have a debate in this House on minimum mandatory sentencing and punishment for sexual assault.