Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It seems to me that we are serving two separate markets. BCPs are for areas without broadband, and the hubs are for areas with broadband where people want the socialisation of work and to work in good workspaces. These are very different requirements.

On the wider issue, people work where they are. I think most Deputies have been doing this for years; I certainly have. For example, I have worked in airports, hotels, at home, and in my offices in Galway and Dublin. People who do this want broadband everywhere, and I think that Dr. O'Connor will find that many ordinary people are doing this. When I visited America, I found that people in some of the big companies had already moved into a context pattern of work that suited their day: working from home, working from the formal office, working on the road, and working in other offices that the business might have in other parts of the state. That is going to happen here. There is no question about that. I do not think that anybody is going work to always in one place. The world must allow for that flexibility.

My concern relating to BCPs is that people will think that they are a substitute for fibre to the home. I hear reference to the islands and that we will give them BCPs. I am telling Dr. O'Connor, on behalf of the islanders in County Galway, which account for well over half of the islanders in the country, that they want what everyone else wants.

I was interested in what Senator Garvey said and I understand it perfectly, because we all like moving around and meeting and connecting with people. As Deputies, many of us have found over the past eight months that it has not been our broadband connectivity that has been missing but the face-to-face contact with people in constituency clinics, where it would be better just having the face-to-face contact for certain meetings. On the other hand, other things we have done very successfully because we could work where we were. I imagine Senator Garvey, and maybe she could be prompted by the Chair to answer this, really likes the Wi-Fi hub, but she would not like it if that was at the expense of the broadband in her house, because I bet she uses that sometimes. That is what people really want. People want choice everywhere they go. For example, if I am ever booking a hotel, I want a bed and I want Wi-Fi. It is very simple, and I would not stay in a place that could not provide me with Wi-Fi.