Mr. Ian Dempsey:

Approximately 18 years ago we looked at the opportunities for technologies to fundamentally shift some of the employment opportunities in West Cork. There are 1,000 people working in the West Cork technology park which evolved from the Leader programme. Two years ago representatives from the then Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in West Cork to talk about the national broadband plan. They were laughed out of it when they told the people attending that it was five years behind. It was 21 or 22 at that time. Somebody asked how we feel about the 30 megabytes. There is nobody in my area, and I am sure it is the same in other rural areas, who thinks they will get that and that there will be universal service provision. In any event, if it takes another six, seven or eight years the game has moved on. We will have the same digital divide. We are playing catch up all the time. I know in isolated areas and in some urban areas fundamentally some very good things are happening. It is a significant inhibitor and limiting factor to optimising economic development in many areas.

I want to return to a question Deputy Fitzmaurice raised about bureaucracy and whether anyone can quantify that. I can do so. In March of last year the Department invited me to go to Brussels to present on what it takes to achieve 100% compliance in programme delivery and accountability for public funds. I did that and as part of the presentation we were asked to quantify what it takes in man or woman hours to deliver a project. Irrespective of that project's scale, just working through the requirements to comply with the regulations, it takes 60 hours. Whether the project was worth €5,000 or €500,000 the process in respect of checks and balances are fundamentally the same. That is a working week and a half. That is what it takes to do it right.