Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

Data centres go to them. From the point of a view of a data centre and our broadband plan, Claremorris would have fibre going to it from Dublin from Enet or Eir, and the data centre would be brought back to Claremorris. All of that fibre is there. The data centres would not have an issue with regard to getting backhaul fibre. The data centre are good in terms of capacity, if that is where they are going to build. There will not be any issue with data centres. Mr. Neary might come in on the data centres if he wants to offer any more on them.

The impact on the carbon footprint is manifold. First, people are not travelling. Second, fibre networks are very efficient networks, far more efficient than the old copper networks. I saw one report which said a fibre network could be up to 80% more efficient in energy consumption than a copper network. That is true in general in respect of international travel, local travel and all the rest that goes with it in terms of the footprint.

The question is if people will need big offices in cities and towns or if we will have smaller offices and people will be working from home. The network straddles the environment of economics and the reduction in carbon emissions. Once we have a ubiquitous national fibre network, that will be the platform. The aeroplanes will fly off the platform eventually. We are getting the runway built and when it is built, we will see an awful lot more development in energy efficiency coming from that