Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Senator O'Reilly's comparison with rural electrification is not valid because only one company was supplying electricity, namely, the Electricity Supply Board, ESB. In this case, the difficulty is the risk in terms of take-up because almost three quarters of the population have been already serviced. I was in a townland recently where there are 56 houses, 40 of which have been serviced in the past month or two by a private operator via a radio signal.

I am fascinated with the discussion about the value after 25 years. The Government, the Department and those defending this process have advised us that there are built-in obligations for the technology and the fibre to be kept up to scratch. In terms of comparisons, the motorways are to return to State ownership after 25 years but this asset will not come back to the State. If the motorway is not resurfaced every two years and maintained in terms of drainage there will not be much of a motorway to get back. The difference is that the taxpayer's buy-in was less. I am not happy with some of the motorway contracts, particularly the contract for the N7, which I think is a bit dodgy, not in the sense that anybody set out to do anything wrong but in that its terms were not good for the taxpayer. I will give another example. Various private companies have flipped Eir in the 20 years since it was first privatised. It was sold recently to a French investor, who paid billions of euro for it despite the fact that half of the poles are falling over in the ditches. To say that a telecommunications network or a broadband network would not be valuable at the end of 25 years is ridiculous. Taking what the Government has told us regarding the compulsory mechanisms built into the contract to ensure that the investor and operator will maintain, upgrade and renew cables and so on over the 25 years, this network will be very valuable. When one adds to that the point made by Deputy Dooley that it has the customer base cornered in the 542,000 intervention area this will be a very valuable asset after 25 years. That is my contention.