Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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On the supplementary question from Deputy McEntee, that will all be exposed in the detailed mapping exercise that will be completed by autumn. More than half of the work has been done on that. That is a minute exercise in planning and comparisons in terms of being able to persuade the Commission that there is not a private sector alternative available. To do that, this detailed exercise had to be done.

Deputy Colreavy again asserted his support, as was evident across the House, in respect of the legislation I was required to put through to enable projects such as that announced today by the ESB and Vodafone. However, I suspect from memory he is reading from the plan as published in 2012 when the focus was not on fibre and we envisaged a wireless solution to a great deal of the challenge and, therefore, 2,000 installations would have been necessary in those circumstances. He is correct as that is a fair measure of the challenge and it would be likely to be challenging for some local communities as well. The step-change to fibre will obviate that necessity.