Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We want to ensure that the entire country gets the service and to the extent that there is commercial involvement in areas of the country where that occurs, that should be allowed to occur. I agree with Deputy Wallace that it is always best that any project, whether it is in the public or private sector, should be expedited, but all State resources are scarce. Decisions must be made about priorities in relation to any State resource, not only in this area but right across the board.

Deputy Ó Cuív asked me a question about my philosophical approach. The most important, although not the only, objective for the State in terms of public economic infrastructure is to ensure that areas where the commercial interests will not go do not lose out. That arises in the area of public transport and in all sorts of other areas. It seems that would be the key objective, to ensure that somebody living in a particular area or wanting to business in a particular remote part of the country does not lose out simply because there is not a commercial reason for an operator to come in and provide broadband.

See this speech in context