There has been strong criticism of the Government's decision not to extend the National Broadband scheme.

The State funded programme - used by around 45,000 households and businesses in rural areas - is ending this month.

South Tipperary Independent TD Mattie McGrath says rural Ireland is being left behind when it comes to broadband:

“It’s shambolic to be honest. We’ve seen several so called rollouts of national broadband over the years, over the last I suppose half a dozen years.

“And here we are now at the end of this national rollout - It hasn’t been rolled out and it’s going to cost people who can avail of it much more and many many other people who want to do business from home, or for small business in rural Ireland, they cannot just simply transact that business without going to their centre of population.”