Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Very well. I call on the Department to make sure that Eir pays well for getting upgraded fibre to its network. It must not be let off the hook. Do the witnesses take my point? Some tens of thousands of people are being connected every year. Eir's representatives said that the firm could do more. It was not a commitment, but it might do so. That company has connected 300,000 premises. There is no reason it would not do more. We all know that a point will eventually be reached at which it is not commercially viable for any operator. Given that the Department started with a figure 757,000 and after a couple of short years it has reached a figure of 543,000, is it possible that this figure could reach 350,000 in another two or three years without any State support?