Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for missing the beginning of the presentation. I have gone through it and I very much welcome it. I welcome the work that has been done by the Department on the broadband and digital strategies. I have a few questions, which may have been answered.

How does Ireland shape up, both globally and in a European context, in terms of broadband speed and bandwidth? We have heard, for example, that UPC is delivering up to 150 Mbps in urban areas, but that does not give the full picture. As a nation, in general terms, where are we placed?

Much of the pressure on us often comes from domestic users of broadband but the focus here should be on the benefits to the economy and on job creation that broadband should be delivering. We are competing with countries in eastern Europe where the perception, rightly or wrongly, is that they are streets ahead of us in terms of connectivity. The message is not good. In my opinion, we are better than the perception but we need to see the figures and get that stacked up.

The high speed broadband for schools, is a fantastic initiative and is welcome. In talking about the economic impact in terms of creating jobs of providing broadband at speeds of 100 Mbps, did anyone ever consider looking at industrial parks and technological parks in many areas that have enterprises - not the main urban centres but the smaller provincial towns and villages? Did anyone look to see whether we could roll out 100 Mbps to those areas to create jobs? In many of the schools, 100 Mbps may be gilding the lily. If one is talking about an economic advantage, however, could that be the next strategy?

Deputy Ann Phelan mentioned co-ordination with the local authorities, as did Deputy O'Donovan. Further to that, and also on an economic issue, does the Department liaise directly on projects or strategies with IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the enterprise boards? We all are aware that IDA Ireland looks at the urban areas, chiefly on sites of 80 acres or more where it will deliver projects. Critical to its projects, as we heard in the previous presentation from e|net, was the availability of the MANs and the success it has had. If we are to deliver more than 100 Mbps in some other areas, it would seem logical that the Department should be saying to IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland that the infrastructure is available in an area which may not be on their radar and in which they could create jobs. They could get a land bank that may be not as difficult to acquire as in more urban areas and, with some encouragement, be able to deliver industry into places that normally would not have been thought of. That goes for the enterprise boards as well.

Following on from that, while it has not been mentioned in the presentation, could the witnesses give members an overview on how we compare internationally on tier 1 connectivity in attracting into the country the large multinationals that need such infrastructure?

Recently, a large online multinational created 26 jobs in a rural part of west Cork, which is where the focus was rather than bringing them to Sir John Rogerson's Quay or wherever in Dublin and where they would be able to work from home delivering the back office services this company would demand. While everything is going grand, there is the obvious difficulty of technical hitches. We should have moved on from that. I will notify the Department on the matter and hope we can get some resolution. It seems industry is going ahead in that regard and we want to encourage that type of activity where a new template would be offered to large multinationals to facilitate them in having staff work from home two or three days a week, five or ten days a month, or whatever the case may be. It would increase quality of life, decrease the traffic on the roads, and so on. We should encourage that and I would ask the Department to consider it as well.