Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I note the Minister used terms such as "liberalisation". I take it the drift will continue in the provision of telecommunications services. Eircom was floated on the Stock Exchange and then was sold to a consortium which asset-stripped it. Those involved paid themselves a €500 million dividend based on borrowing. It refused to invest in the national broadband roll out or a €1 billion upgrade of the network. The consortium then decided to sell on the company on the Stock Exchange.

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