John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join other Senators in welcoming the news of €16.3 million in funding for maintenance and renewal of the road network in my county of Waterford, which is on top of the €13.8 million given last week by the National Transport Authority, NTA, for active travel measures. It is significant funding which will make a huge difference across our city and county and make the job of councillors in the coming weeks and months easier in devising the roadworks programme. I am particularly happy to see significant funds allocated to the likes of drainage works, community improvement schemes and the discretionary grant because local authorities on the ground know best where to spend money on road infrastructure.

The national broadband plan is a central plank of Fine Gael policy and one I am exceptionally proud of.Our party signed the national broadband plan in the previous Government and pushed forward the roll-out of broadband to every farm, business and household in our country. We will be one of the first countries in the world to have all those households, businesses and farms connected to high-speed broadband. Were it not for the decision to sign that plan at the time, contrary to great opposition from the other side of the House in the previous Government, 166,000 premises would not have already been surveyed with many more already connected.

Obviously, there is a job of work to be done over the coming years in terms of the roll-out of the national broadband plan. We are, however, starting to see the benefits it will bring with the likes of online GP services and remote teaching and learning. Broadband will have benefit in many other areas we do not even know of yet when it is rolled out across our country. Perhaps we could have a debate on the roll-out of the broadband strategy and get the Minister in as regards speeding up the process insofar as possible. I believe everyone now acknowledges it was the right thing to do.