Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like a lot of women who are self-employed and who run a business, she is back at work already, bottling whiskey.

I ask the Leader to organise a debate in regard to the roll-out of broadband. Broadband is being rolled out at the moment and, obviously, it was the previous Government which put this through, essentially. The speed of it needs to increase. There are people in Tipperary at Borrisoleigh and Templederry who have been told they can expect to get roll-out of broadband by 2026 or 2027. It is just too far away. There are people in my own community in Grange who are told they should try to get a private provider, such as Imagine, but they are in areas where they are blocked by mountains or trees and they cannot get satellite coverage. They do not have any alternative. As many people are working from home, the roll-out of broadband is very important. It is something Fine Gael has committed to over the last number of years, and people who voted against it previously are now criticising it because it is not being rolled out quickly enough. They are right but imagine how slow it would be if Fine Gael did not push it through at that time.

We have had a good debate on Housing for All. It has come to my attention that two building sites in Limerick have essentially downed tools for the simple reason of the cost of materials. They cannot justify continuing with work on the sites because of the price of materials. They either have to wait until the price or materials drops or they have to renegotiate the cost of doing the job. This is only going to get worse. I know we are going to debate this further with the Minister but there is an evolving situation in regard to the housing crisis. The cost of materials, whether wood, steel or in particular cement, has increased dramatically in recent weeks. It is a real issue that we need to address as quickly as possible.