Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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It also depends on what lens one is coming at it with. If one is coming at it as an economist looking only at figures one would have one view but if one is coming at it, I would argue, as a Minister trying to deliver high-speed cable across Ireland, one's lens is totally different, wishing no disrespect to the academic lens. Legislators and Ministers have a different job to do. They must balance the sum that the man has done in the office on the cost-benefit analysis with the fact that we want the woman outside Skibbereen to be able to sell her pottery. We are back to the academics of it. All of these variables, first of all, are bespoke to Ireland and one cannot really compare it to get an international perspective. I have looked at it. One cannot compare it to any other jurisdiction and it is bespoke. The variables are arbitrary by which I mean they are not set in stone. It is merely what lens one is looking at it through. Looking at the plan, the lens it is being looked at through is the delivery of broadband to the people of Ireland, not whether it is worth our while to have the woman outside Skibbereen selling the pottery. That is the difference.