I thank the Ceann Comhairle and I apologise to the House.

Today is world telecommunications day. Every day I receive complaints from constituents about the dropping of mobile phone calls. Every day I must ask people to move their location so I can hear what they are saying. This is because of the quality of the mobile phone coverage.

On 1 February the Government launched its new national digital strategy, Harnessing Digital - the Digital Ireland Framework. One of the objectives set out in the framework is to make connectivity available to everyone. It set a target that all populated areas would be covered by 5G not later than 2030. Today, Eir has 5G coverage of more than 70% of Ireland's population, covering 322 towns throughout the country. That is close to providing coverage to every town with a population of 500 or more. Three has a population coverage of 79% for 5G technology. By 2028 we will have 146,000 km of fibre cable stretching across 96% of Ireland's land mass. Setting a goal, therefore, of only covering the populated areas of the country two years later, by 2030, is not very ambitious. On top of that, Government will have to tender for the new Tetra radio communications network, a digital radio service for An Garda Síochána and for the other emergency services, which is costing the taxpayer €40 million per annum at the moment. This network needs to be replaced with a 5G network to have geographic coverage.

Today there is a real gap in providing mobile voice and data services to address the black spots around the country that have a negative impact on businesses and tourism in our rural areas. This will have a significant impact on medical care, the care of older people, and the use of technology on farms into the future. As one of the most dispersed populations in Europe, Ireland has a relatively high percentage of its land mass with no mobile data coverage.

Now is the time to focus on the opportunities the State has by working in collaboration with industry to develop a shared rural network to address this issue, and to assist in the further balanced regional and economic development of our rural areas. This shared rural network could provide the critical 4G and 5G coverage that would enhance the operation of our rural economy, support key activities such as farming, medical services, older people's schemes in rural areas and SME business operations, and it could ensure that people would remain connected when travelling around our country, working in rural Ireland or living in rural areas.

I am aware that the telecoms industry is already engaging with Government via IBEC to progress a phase 1 proof of concept roll-out of a shared rural network, which would cost approximately €5 million. Will the Taoiseach consider this proposal?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue about connectivity, particularly as it applies to rural Ireland, the economic life of rural Ireland and the quality of life in a modern digital era.

The main twin pillars of the Government's economic recovery plan were digitalisation and the green economy. The economic recovery plan has been particularly successful in its objectives. Consider the employment created since we published that plan and the actions on climate. It is quite dramatic. As a result of that plan we are close to full employment much earlier than anticipated. Without a doubt, the new national digital strategy is designed to advance the country into a better performer digitally speaking. It relates to the worlds of education and enterprise, and enabling people to be far more connected.

The Minister for Social Protection, and Rural and Community Development, Deputy Heather Humphreys, has set up with the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, a national mobile phone and broadband task force.

It will be co-chaired by both the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, to address and deal with the issues that Deputy Naughten has identified.

The Deputy mentioned and referenced collaboration with the private sector. There will be engagement with the private sector. We must also learn lessons from previous engagements and collaboration in terms of technology partnerships. Above all, what the Deputy said does dovetail with the Government's wider economic agenda of rebalancing the country economically to get greater development along the western seaboard and in particular the south west and south east. Connectivity is the key to that. It is important that we set targets and milestones. The Deputy is familiar with the national broadband plan and would have been involved in that at an earlier phase. Targets were set and so on and, obviously, Covid-19 intervened and slowed down some of the progress in that regard. It is important that we set realistic targets that can be achieved and that we do so as effectively and quickly as we possibly can.

The Government has big ambition for providing fibre but none for mobile services. I am talking about establishing a shared rural network with all the operators on it. This would be complementary to the national broadband plan. Similar models are already operating in other markets such as the UK and Germany. In fact, such a shared rural network is currently being built out in Northern Ireland. The estimated cost of replicating that here would be between €30 million and €50 million. This is small money and would also slash the cost of the provision of an emergency Garda communications network, which must now be tendered for and a new separate network built. I ask the Government to reconsider this in the interests of putting an effective shared network in place that can provide for our emergency services and An Garda Síochána, as well as providing 5G coverage across the country.

First, I thank the Deputy again for raising this issue. There are very serious issues and he made reasonable points in respect of this. I would be wary of estimates that we get from time to time. We should all be wary of estimates in respect of projects of this kind, particularly in the communications area because they tend to balloon, particularly when the State signals too early an interest in getting involved. Costs can go up. I think we should take this step by step. The overall principle is about enhancing coverage with less drop out for telephones, although from time to time, public representatives do not mind the odd telephone call being lost in terms of getting some respite from the volume of calls. More broadly speaking, however, in terms of connectivity in rural Ireland, the task force will work with the Deputy if he wishes to make submissions to it and, obviously, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, will as well in terms of complementing the broadband roll-out.