Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

I thank the Deputy for her questions. She asked if we will go where there is already a substandard or standard broadband service. In all these rural areas, there is a broadband service of some sort being offered by somebody. One could go to Meath or Kerry and a broadband company would offer services of 1 Mbps, 2 Mbps or 10 Mbps. That does not mean the State will not intervene in the area. As part of the requirements under state aid issues, the main instruction from the European Commission is not to distort competition. We must ensure that if we intervene in an area, it would see a step change in the service available. If there is a 3 Mbps service in an area, as the Deputy notes, it may be advertised as "up to 3 Mbps" and be much less at a particular time, such as 8 p.m. The State would intervene in such an area to ensure those customers and houses in that area would have a minimum of 30 Mbps. That is the current plan to ensure a network can be built in those areas.

One of the challenges is that many companies will not like this because they currently offer a service. With mapping, we must ensure we understand such issues, as operators may claim to offer a 30 Mbps service. We will have to do much research and investigation before we can intervene, as the European Commission would take on board the claims of operators. It will argue that not a penny of taxpayers' money should be spent if a commercial operators offers a service in the area. There are operators which claim to offer the services and we must investigate that.