Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I wish to reinforce what the Deputy has said. I am aware of significant rural parts of my constituency where considerable frustration has been expressed. There would be concern that they will now need to wait until 2008. The Minister talking about competition is a very poor response when we are talking about areas of the country in which competition will not apply to any great extent. It is one thing to have a model in Dublin. I am not talking about people living on the tops of mountains; I am talking about relatively sizeable villages with only recent introduction of broadband as is the case in Rathnew, for example, or places still struggling to get a decent broadband service. If a decent broadband service exists they are often expected to pay through the nose for it.

See this speech in context