Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The national broadband scheme is a very basic provision and if it had not been done, parts of rural Ireland would not have access at all. The rural broadband scheme was intended to address individual premises that did not have a service for whatever reason and which were not catered for by the national broadband scheme. In 2013, there were a small number of takers and there is no provision for it in the budget for 2014. We are in the middle of the mapping exercise for what I might loosely call rural Ireland for a submission we have to make to Brussels for state aid approval. It is there that the service to rural Ireland will be picked up.