Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I apologise for being delayed. If I repeat some questions, I hope I will be forgiven because I did not hear them all. I listened to the opening statements and a few things struck me. To allude to something the Cathaoirleach was just saying, at the outset of this there was much criticism and much debate as to whether the State should get involved in this at all when the private sector was not. That was clear. There needed to be some sort of mechanism to roll out broadband, particularly for rural Ireland. I will get to urban heartlands shortly. If this had not been done, where would we be now in the absence of this framework? I know it is hard to ponder that but, realistically, where would be if this was not in place?