Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On the North-South issues, a sub-group of the cross-departmental team has been examining existing and potential areas of co-operation. Until now it has been mainly on roads, road development and road infrastructure. As the Deputy is aware it has done quite a good job on the Dublin-Belfast Road and the Ballymascanlon-Newry project is well under way. There is also a high level of North-South co-operation on infrastructural initiatives. In the energy area, the energy regulators, North and South, are working together on the creation of an all island energy market which is a big and significant project. On the roads, as I have mentioned, there is the Newry-Dundalk link but improvements are under way and are well advanced in planning on the N2 and N3 which have a cross-Border dimension. On waste, there are 32 local authorities in the South and 26 district councils in the North participating in an all island recycling scheme which was declared the winner of the UK national recycling awards in its category. There has also been an all island approach to a successful project for the disposal of waste fridges and freezers. These are examples of where there is much co-operation. There are many other issues on which there is co-operation in various Departments but I would not be aware of them all.

On the issue of broadband, we came from a slow start as there were difficulties after the Eircom issues but substantial progress is being made. The provision of telecommunications services, including broadband, is a major issue for the private sector companies operating in a fully liberalised market, regulated by ComReg, the independent regulator. It was clear for some time that the private sector had failed to invest at the level necessary to keep pace with the demand for broadband. The recent broadband programme addressed that issue. There are 120 towns and cities nationwide in the metropolitan areas network. Phase 1 of that programme, into which we have invested more than €80 million, has delivered fibre optic networks to 27 towns. The second stage of that MANs programme is well under way. The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources has also given assistance to group and community broadband schemes and the projects cover approximately 575 communities with a combined population of 400,000. By next year broadband penetration throughout the country will be in excess of 90%. I admit we started slowly, but we are growing faster than anywhere else and the figures for last year and this year are impressive. There will obviously be small areas left that must be dealt with and the Minister is concentrating on these. Penetration is successful and broadband take-up is very good.

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