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

I was asked about the 50% commitment this morning. It was a commitment of the commercial sector at the time of the preparation of the broadband plan, and the commercial operators - Eircom, UPC and others - have exceeded it. The Eircom plan will take until mid-2016 and will exceed 1.4 million premises, compared to its commitment of 1 million.

In view of the trends here and internationally with greater uptake, increased use of smart devices and new applications and so on, it is proceeding at a faster pace than we anticipated.

My reference was to the major motorway routes where it is defective at the moment. ComReg conducts analyses of this from time to time, which is not confined to urban areas or which does not exclude rural areas with a low population density. It throws up, as the Deputy said, what one would expect. It throws up what is thrown up among rural populations across western Europe and the US. There is a basic service in some parts of rural Ireland and that is why the State has to act. It is not a commercial proposition as it stands for the private sector.