Ms Annemarie Harte:

It is important to add that in the last five or six years the country as a whole has been fire-fighting and trying to return to some semblance of economic normality. The whole area of e-commerce, online retailing, has taken a back seat because they are just managing to survive. Given this background and looking to the future, there is an opportunity to get broadband up and running throughout the country, to guarantee a minimum speed. We are not saying we cannot be a part of that development, we absolutely want to be a part of it. We want to collaborate with semi-State bodies such as the LEOs so that we can get the information to our members. It is important that we plan for the future, rather than potentially seeing the whole cycle happen again. Many of us acknowledge this as a possibility but would never want to admit that this could become a reality.