Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

As Eircom has been scrutinised by so many groups, I am unsure whether there are many with which Members are unfamiliar. Does the Minister of State not agree that while he has stated that the State would not buy Eircom, no one has suggested that it should. Babcock & Brown appears to propose splitting the company in two. Hence, while Eircom would continue to act as a supply and mobile telephone company, the network would be available. Is there a possibility of buying back the wires rather than buying Eircom? Such a network could then be operated on an open basis for companies like Eircom and other suppliers. Is that a possibility?

The Minister of State noted that there might be another purchaser. However, I understand that Babcock & Brown's shareholding is sufficient for it to be in a commanding position to determine whether another bid would be successful. This makes the possibility of another purchaser extremely unlikely.

Does the Minister of State agree that effectively, at present the State is engaged in establishing its own independent separate network? He lauded the significant financial investment that has been made in alternative fibre networks, very little of which has been lit up. To an extent, this investment went against some of the recommendations of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. In terms of an alternative network, it did not make sense to replicate fibre networks that were already in place.

Hence, rather than spending hundreds of millions by building an alternative network and adopting the Minister's "Project Dingle dell", it might be worthwhile for the State to consider setting up a single fibre optic network on which all companies could co-exist. Is Ireland big enough to have two fibre optic networks? That does not seem to make economic sense. If Babcock & Brown buys the company and divests itself of the network, it might be worth considering the possibility that it would be cheaper to buy it than to build our own separate network.

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