James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Good. The Minister might revert on the first question. My third question relates to who owns the infrastructure. Is it retail or wholesale? Let us say it is enet, which it appears to be, barring some uncertain and unknown development. If it is enet, good luck to it. On the infrastructure that is built out and the kit provided to the homes in the intervention areas, will enet be the only option for broadband in those areas or will there be a wholesale package that Vodafone, Imagine or Eir could plug into to sell it on to the customer?

I also mentioned my fourth question in the House the other day. We are all examining the possibility of having fibre to the home and realise that it is the gold standard, as it delivers up to 1,000 Mbps. Is there now an argument for a phased approach? Have technologies such as fixed wireless been considered at any point? We can already get 70 Mbps with fixed wireless already. I have worked with it in Kildare. We have done this through the private sector in many places in Kildare where they could not get alternatives. The minimum standard in the national broadband plan is 30 Mbps. If I was living in a home in an intervention area and, depending on the answer to the first question, waiting five or ten years to get it, I might be very happy to get fixed wireless as an interim solution. It might be possible to roll that out relatively cost efficiently and quickly. Might that be considered as an interim measure in some of those areas which are at the end of the queue? Even if things go swimmingly well, they might otherwise be waiting several years to get it.

We have spoken about procedures already today and what can and cannot be done. I am a big fan of Bunreacht na hÉireann and a big believer in democracy and sovereignty. I always thought that was a given in the House but I query it now. I believe in the separation of powers and, in particular, I believe in Article 28.4, which provides that the Government is accountable to Dáil Éireann in all its actions. I was a little bit taken aback when I came out of a vote this afternoon to see as a headline on the website of The Irish Times that the Government will ignore the vote of the Dáil. Is that correct? Will the Government going to ignore the vote of the sovereign Parliament? Why? How? Will the Bunreacht be thrown out the window with that decision? Will the Minister clarify the situation?