Mr. Pat Galvin:

The Departments involved have been constructive in setting up a forum whereby the industry and the Government can look at these assets in order to reduce the cost of rolling out high-speed broadband through fibre. Dr Gary Healy has mentioned the historical reality that the core networks, particularly for fixed broadband, were developed before the motorway system. When I say core network, I refer to those linking major cities and towns. It will not add much to the existing routes we upgrade but, where we need to access motorways and national roads, there is an issue with regard to the terms and conditions and ease of doing so. The Government has made significant progress with relevant Departments in sorting it out. There is an issue of health and safety in terms of road openings and wayleaves, which takes time. There is a general frustration in the industry that, while things have improved, it could be much better.

Raising these issues is helpful but it does not address the core problem. This is not the core network linking the cities but the recurring problem in fixed telecoms of the access network. Government assets add value at the core but not at the access network, which is where bottlenecks occur.