Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Henry for his very clear presentation. I live in Manorhamilton, a small town in north Leitrim which has a MAN. Many people were sceptical when the MAN was being installed in Manorhamilton. Mr. Henry talked about attracting new industry, but there is another aspect. Industry that was based in Manorhamilton long before the MAN would probably not have remained without that MAN infrastructure. Anyone living in the west or north west understands how essential a good communications network is. Traditionally, in all aspects of infrastructure there is very little north of a line from Dublin to Galway. The roads tend not to be as good and so forth. This is where there are some isolated pockets of industry, as opposed to farming villages or market towns, and these are spread throughout the west and north west. I do not believe we exploit them enough but we are very glad to have the MANs in Manorhamilton, Sligo, Bundoran and Ballyshannon.

Mr. Henry spoke about the vision for the future for the middle range of towns and more rural areas. Is e|net working with Government on the overall telecommunication plans and the different solutions? Is it working with Government on realistic timeframes for getting things done or does it just respond to requests from Government to do something? What is the level of information share between e|net, which has a vision, and Government, which has a project to do?

While both public and private money has gone into the MANs, the State and semi-State sectors are not exploiting the technology that is being made available to them. We sometimes put in infrastructure without changing how we work in Government and semi-State offices. We still operate with 19th century paper record systems and outmoded communications systems within and between Departments. I doubt if Mr. Henry's office has any input into that sort of thought process by Government. However, he may be aware of such analysis. In fairness it is probably a question I should be asking of Government and not of e|net.