Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Earlier I indicated my wish to comment because what I want to say is relevant to the latter comments made by Deputy Dooley. I also appreciate that Mr. Ansip would like to answer our two sets of questions together. I welcome the European Commission Vice President. It is good to have him with us and I appreciate his initial presentation.

I completely support the view put forward by Deputy Dooley. His view is reflective of a large majority of the Parliament, and there is a sense of frustration and alarm. The point was well made by one of the commentators that were the level of proposed imposition on Ireland, or the proposed amount of money that merited collection, to be implemented then the productivity of the Apple workers in Ireland would be beyond anything else on a worldwide scale and in the realms of science fiction. Therefore, the sum involved is unrealistic on that level and on a number of levels. We have operated a very transparent tax system that has been discussed at a number of levels within the EU. It has been defended by the Taoiseach at EU level and discussed openly there. We feel frustrated about the matter and I support the concerns expressed by Deputy Dooley. I agree with him that it would be remiss of us not to have that view expressed. Placing the onus on this State to collect the money is an unrealistic proposition. It is crazy and unacceptable, and we disagree with the proposal. This matter is not specifically the remit of the Vice President, but we had to make him aware of it.

I have two questions that I want to address to the brief of the Vice President. For us to achieve a single digital market across Europe, the big need in Ireland is to have access to high-speed broadband across the country. Large chunks of rural Ireland do not have access to high-speed broad due to population, topography, a lack of infrastructure and a number of other factors. We are now in the process of trying to rectify the situation. In the process of doing so, we intend to use what we call the gap funding model.

The private sector will ultimately get ownership of the network in the 37,000 households that will need support from the State to access broadband, but it will be very important to control costs. Mr. Ansip might comment on that, regarding the role the EU and the Commission might play in controlling the cost the private sector could impose on individual consumers. High-speed broadband is so vital to all these areas of rural Ireland. Before we talk about e-commerce, education, local business or anything of that nature, the fact that so many people are trying to access education locally as well must be recognised. It is a huge issue.

To move very briefly to e-commerce, there is tremendous untapped potential for Internet sales and we have a long way to go. Obviously, we have to get broadband in place across the country. However, I would be interested in the Mr. Ansip's comment on the steps we could take to increase Internet sales further. We are not benefiting enough nationally from them yet, but there is growth in that area.