Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the representatives from the Department and ComReg and thank them for their presentations.

The first thing I would like to touch on refers back to the national broadband scheme. Some of the presentations were almost apologetic in tone as regards the national broadband scheme, describing results in 2014 from a scheme that was launched in 2008. I remember when the scheme was launched in 2008. I was a member of the regional authority. The scheme was very much a part of the work of the regional authorities in 2008, and many of the criticisms that we have heard throughout the scheme, and certainly at the end of it, were voiced in 2008, including the amount of public money to be spent on the scheme, the outputs achieved and the duplication that results when the scheme comes on top of private competitors offering something without State operation in a district-electoral-division-based national broadband scheme.

I think there was €100 million involved in the scheme. It is hard to know whether we got value for money for that, but we do not want to replicate the mistakes of the old scheme in the new scheme. The commercial sector is providing more of the coverage, a point highlighted in the presentation, and while we thought initially that the State intervention would involve a certain number of households, that figure has now halved. This is a trend. Under the new scheme, we should look at prioritising areas where there is not a hope in hell of the commercial sector providing a service. The commercial sector can come in the front door and the State coverage can come in the back door. There is no point in both coming in the same door and treading on each other's toes. That was a fundamental error in the national broadband scheme. I have contacted the Department and the Minister's office about the area of west Cork in which I live, the spectacularly beautiful Coomhola valley, where people cannot get any service, even from wireless Internet service providers, and mobile phone coverage is very poor. Apart from land lines, they are cut off. I suggest that the State prioritise these areas, because ultimately the State will have to provide a service anyway. It makes sense to provide it first, and the State will meet the commercial sector at some point in three or four years' time. There are seven west Cork islands that are very difficult to provide a service to, but the people who live on them are citizens and the State will be obliged to provide the service. It would be helpful to start there. Will that approach be taken with respect to those services?

With regard to more rural areas, the gold standard is a fibre line to the house. That is very difficult. The presentation referred to 200 km of fibre lines to be laid by the ESB and Eircom. That covers from Youghal to where I live in one single line. That is a very one-dimensional effort and will not suffice. A more proactive approach using a myriad of different operators could involve opening up the ESB legislation to allow private contractors to tender. They have been trying to do so but there may be legal issues or an evaluation of how it will work out, and there is not much feedback on how it will happen. Many of the operators are familiar with the terrain and how broadband can be delivered, whether it is through fibre, VDSL or a satellite service. The standard can be achieved, but the ESB network must be opened up to corporate competition.

With regard to ComReg, my focus is on rural areas. There is no issue in urban areas; the challenge is in rural areas. Is it being considered as a public service obligation through the Department or another operator to provide the service to the home? What is the opinion of ComReg on facilitating new entrants, no matter how small, that have delivered a service in rural areas over the past ten years? They are being frustrated in accessing the ESB and Eircom lines. Does ComReg have a role in opening up and delivering broadband in a more efficient way, with less State intervention?

Mobile phone coverage has deteriorated. I travel from west Cork to Dublin and the biggest black spot is along the motorway. Testing on the national roads is a welcome initiative and I would expand it to the busier regional roads. ComReg mentioned 1 million testing points. Those results should be published in an easy-to-read map format so that the consumer knows where there are mobile phone black spots. Is there a danger that the investment by companies in mobile phone infrastructure is lagging because the focus is on data and delivering broadband? If that has been brought to the attention of ComReg, it might inform the committee.