Mr. Pat Galvin:

There was a commonality of questions around broadband availability and plans. I assure Senator Brennan regarding the roll-out of high-speed broadband in rural Ireland, including the Cooley Peninsula. We have circulated to all Members of the Oireachtas a reference to an Eircom website where their constituency offices can go right down to individual community level and see exactly where Eircom intends to enable cabinets for high-speed broadband. We have clear plans and programmes on where and when we intend to invest. The issue today is what happens where we do not intend to invest, and we have rehearsed the point well.

Senator Eamonn Coghlan and Deputy Harrington raised individual areas. I am familiar with Senator Eamonn Coghlan’s case and it illustrates a point I made earlier that we are involved in a three year programme. We brought fibre where we could quickly, and the Senator referred to the estate close to his home. Like many other developments, this one has particular physical constraints. Technology has physical constraints, and this is one of the complexities. Service depends on how far one is from the cabinet and whether it is commercially viable to extend the network. We are examining this in the Senator's community. The second phase of the programme examines where we are and asks if we can go further. It is a very calculated, clear programme of investment where we review what we have done, bearing in mind the costs emerging and the technological improvements we are making.

As I am also from west Cork, I am familiar with Deputy Harrington’s location and places such as Ballylickey, Coomhola and Kealkill. One of the issues there is where a house has two serving exchanges but is distant from both. Again, it is a case of getting technical experts to see what can be done. However, we must be realistic. We still depend ultimately on some type of Government intervention to pick up areas such as the hill farmers the Deputy mentioned. When we put in a phone line, we are regulated not to recover the full cost of it, unlike other utilities which can get a significant contribution from the householder. We have a universal service and can recover only a certain amount of our costs and it takes a long time to do so. When we look at challenging geographical areas and the investment case, we must be realistic about what we can achieve in order to make a profit on it and continue to invest.

Universality has traditionally been a feature of the telecommunications industry, where a company was obliged to deliver a universal service. It is a very interesting point because in discussions we have with Government and the European Commission regulators, our view generally is that broadband should be considered to be an issue of universal availability. If the national broadband plan is implemented in the manner proposed, it will become a de facto universal service obligation and whoever wins will be obliged perhaps up to 30 Mbps, or whatever the speed is, in the catchment area of the tender. What could emerge from all this discussion is a universal broadband service funded by the taxpayer, and not in terms of any wasteful expenditure because state aid rules are very clearly designed to ensure money is spent as efficiently as possible. We have covered many areas that are part of the ongoing discussion the industry is having with the Government.