Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's presentation because as I have said before it is not broadband we would have had in certain parts of County Limerick, but bog-band. Certainly trying to do business in any kind of remote setting in the area I represent with an intermittent service that breaks down every now and again is very difficult. Anything that can be done is very welcome. I welcome that the Minister has already acted even though the ink is hardly dry on the legislation.

I will also be parochial. I know the Minister's announcement in April included 48 locations, for instance in County Limerick. Will there be an opportunity to address obvious black spots where there are either employment opportunities or where there are isolated commercial enterprises that are having obvious difficulties?

The Minister for Education and Skills has done considerable work on increasing the speed available to schools. One of the key aspects to trying to get children to be active agents in their own learning is having a good Internet service, which is not available in many rural schools at the moment.

I refer to the work done by Shannon Development a number of years ago on metropolitan area networks across the mid-west from south Offaly down into Listowel through Limerick. How does the plan the Minister has announced dovetail with the use of them? They were put in at considerable cost to the Exchequer and include a lot of physical infrastructural work. What is the overall plan as to how those MANs, metropolitan area networks, will connect into this overall publicly-funded broadband infrastructure? In other words, will there be a single broadband one-stop shop for Government-supported broadband across the country or will it be disparate? I believe people will be concerned if it is to continue to be disparate.