Mr. Ciarán Ó hÓbáin:

Senator Murphy raised a number of issues. He rightly says that the question of access to high-speed broadband for people in rural areas is not just an Irish problem, but what the national broadband plan will ensure in the future is that it is not a problem in Ireland. Ireland will be standing out as the leading country in Europe that has addressed the problem. It is a very difficult one to address. Across Europe very significant investment is being made in high-speed broadband networks. They are really reaching out; they are not just in major urban areas. In the countries we look at and know most about, we are seeing that no country of the scale of Ireland or larger has adopted the level of ambition that Ireland has and said, "We will continue the reach out to get to everyone". The national broadband plan will ensure that.

The Senator asked how many of the 60,000 are rural and urban. While there are dots in urban areas, the national broadband plan is almost exclusively a rural project because the commercial operators have built in the cities, towns and villages. With regard to Ahascragh, we can come back and look at that. If any Eircode is given to us in respect of a blue area where somebody says he or she cannot get a high-speed broadband service, we investigate it. We find in many cases that the person can or there is an issue to be resolved. In some instances we have found that people should be in the national broadband plan because they are not, and will not be, served by a commercial operator.