Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

Is it not true that when Deputy Noel Dempsey became Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, he stated during a visit to UCD that he wanted 600,000 lines by the end of 2006? He then changed his target. He is only halfway there. Every Deputy receives e-mails, or telephone calls in the case of people who do not have e-mail outside work, in respect of broadband. One such call I received this week came from a newly expanding area in Wexford. The person who contacted me was very irate because they had done everything possible to obtain a broadband connection but still had not been connected, despite the fact that a Minister comes from the area in question. It is very embarrassing for all of us that the situation regarding broadband services is so poor.

Has the Minister of State consulted the Australian venture capitalists, Babcock & Brown? Representatives from the company visited Dublin in recent weeks and sought out Opposition spokespersons and other relevant individuals. Babcock & Brown appears to have a very clear vision of what it wishes to do, which is to re-organise the network as a separate company which is not connected with the retail division and Meteor. Has the Minister of State met the company? What are his views in respect of the possible impact on the network of a takeover of Eircom by Babcock & Brown?

When will the Minister of State bring forward legislation relating to ComReg, which we have sought for a long time? When does he plan to strengthen ComReg? We receive all its press releases but everything in them is aspirational. Why can we not have a real regulator like Ofcom in the UK?

What is the Minister of State doing to stimulate demand? He spoke about the schools programme but is it not pathetic that we do not have a dedicated educational programme? Why can we not give every child a laptop and produce new pedagogical material that reflects how teaching will be revolutionised in the new era? If it is not possible to introduce such measures now, why does the Minister not announce that the next Government will introduce them?

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