Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation. It is probably one of the largest delegations to appear before the committee, but there is an enormous issue with regard to broadband and mobile telephone coverage.

With regard to the presentation, I am not sure whether the witness is seeking an apology from the Irish people for where they are living or for the dispersed population, but that is the position. We must be serious about this. It is the most frustrating issue I encounter on a daily basis. There is no need for the Government to encourage the population to engage with broadband services for their businesses. Every business, small trader, family, household and farmer is using broadband and the Internet. They are seeking it for their business because that is where business is going, so that is where they are going.

However, there is huge frustration with broadband. There are constantly new schemes for broadband, particularly in the areas the witness outlined in the presentation. The industry uses the phrase that it is "not commercially viable" for broadband provision in these areas and State aid must be provided. An initiative for a new broadband scheme was announced by the Government last April, but what was omitted from the announcement was the fact that it would have to seek state aid approval from the European Union and it appears that it will not be presented to the European Union until sometime early in 2015. When people hear this they become hugely frustrated.

The witness referred to the rural-urban digital divide. It is a massive divide.

People are telling me where they have to go to seek broadband services. I do not need to detail specific households or businesses that need them. Everybody needs the best possible broadband service available and there is huge frustration and at this stage almost anger about it. While I appreciate the figures the delegates have announced for the amounts of money invested, if one tells this to the people who looking for services, they become even more frustrated.

The Chairman alluded to mobile phone services. There is no question or doubt that there are areas of the country where the mobile phone service has deteriorated on a continuous basis. It is not just that there is an issue in some places only; one telephones the service providers only to be told there is ongoing maintenance and that proper coverage will be restored in a couple of weeks. There are areas in which there has been no mobile phone coverage in the past year and a half in which previously there had been very good coverage.

In looking at Departments and planning processes there are a number of issues that come to mind. I think the percentage of the country without a broadband service is 22%. From what I can gather, there are places ten or 15 miles from major centres of population in which there are no broadband services. While we can applaud the amounts that have been spent, there is a major issue related to the rural-urban divide that must be tackled in a significant way. There have been a number of schemes in the past few years, but we are still not getting there. There seems to be no seriousness on the part of the industry to target the issue. I would love to find out what is meant by the term "commercially viable" and what returns the industry needs or is prepared to accept for a service to be commercially viable. There are thousands of people, including families and small businesspeople, who are travelling a mile or two to receive emails and contact suppliers and others they must contact. The Oireachtas, the Government and this committee must tackle this issue in a very serious way because it is one of the major issues.