Denis Naughten and broadband resignation
Senator Leyden regretted the loss of Denis Naughten as Minister and praised his diligence, saying he had been keen to extend broadband to many homes.
I will certainly comply with that request. First, the Leas-Chathaoirleach nearly caused a shock. We were actually out the door when he announced that the Government had collapsed.
Comment on this
We were a little concerned because one never knows what is going to happen from day to day. Roscommon-Galway regrets the departure of the former Minister, Deputy Naughten, as the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment. It was a great boost in the constituency to have the Minister there. Deputy Naughten is available, very diligent and very hardworking and was very effective as a Minister. It is most regrettable that this issue arose. I believe Deputy Naughten was anxious to see broadband extended to 500,000 houses and that he wanted to be hands on. Unfortunately, this was not seen to be suitable. We wish him well in his continued political career.
I compliment Ryan Tubridy and "The Late Late Show" for the show on Friday, 12 October which was broadcast from the Central Hall, Westminster, London. It was a magnificent show. It was watched by 610,000 people. It showed the proud contribution of Irish people in every walk of life in the United Kingdom. The comments on Brexit were interesting, as were the other contributions and the involvement or otherwise of the ambassador. It was a professional operation carried out by an extremely competent compere in Ryan Tubridy.
The only difficulty was that too many tickets were issued. There were 1,200 seats and 400 people were disappointed. The tickets were allocated by a UK-based company called ApplauseStore but I understand that Ryan Tubridy has promised on his radio programme to make it up to those people who were very disappointed. I have great pride at that programme being broadcast and it should be on the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It was a magnificent piece of work by a very professional organisation in RTÉ and we should be proud of it. We should also be proud of our contribution to the United Kingdom and what the Irish people have built in the United Kingdom. The Irish in Britain are now at the top of their game in every sense such as in business and entertainment, for example. Anyone who watched the show would have realised how unfortunate it is that the United Kingdom has decided to leave the European Union.