Ms Katherine Licken:

I thank Deputy O'Donovan. We share his frustration. We know there is a problem and we have a programme in place to address it. We are working full on and flat out on a programme to address the deficit and I mean not in a way where we do a programme but are back here in six years' time saying "Demand has gone through the roof and we have to intervene again." We want to do it right, we want to do it once and that is what we intend to do. We will need a little bit of forbearance in order to see the programme through right. If we end up in court, as Mr. Mulligan has said, at any point in the juncture then everybody will lose.

The MANs has been very effective, particularly in some towns. Something like 85 out of the 88 MANs are now lit and being used.

We look at existing infrastructure. We look at the use of existing infrastructure and produce a database of assets that are available, in the broadband plan, for operators to use. For example, BG has laid ducting on the Galway-Mayo pipeline route which will be brought into use, probably in the next year or so, for the purposes of putting fibre into it in order to use it. EirGrid and ESB, while doing transatlantic cables, also lay fibre next to those cables. The National Roads Authority has put ducts in all of its new road buildings in order to allow fibre to be put in those ducts. That shows we look at existing infrastructure. It is very difficult, I guess, where there are road opening issues with other utilities. There is a Government policy that, where possible, one leaves open the opportunity for telecoms operators to use existing infrastructure. For example, the OPW makes available publicly-owned buildings for the construction of masts and antennae for mobile broadband and fixed wireless.

I agree with Deputy O'Donovan's point about Finland. Although Finland has 16 people per km2, which is a lot less than Ireland, the country has a greater concentration of people in villages than we do which makes things slightly easier. Having said that, we share the ambition of Finland to deal with the problem conclusively.