Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

Earlier I spoke about the developing competitive market in terms of not just fixed line telecommunications providers of which there are several. The number of companies in the telecommunications area is very significant in wireless, cable and a range of different technological services. We need to be very careful that we do not just jump into a very quickly evolving and competitive market in a way that would restrict our development technologically. My general instinct is that we would need to look in some detail at any proposal, to consider the costs and benefits and the developing market conditions, and to be very careful before making similar bold moves that in the past might have seemed in the first instance to be very astute but actually have longer-term consequences that are difficult to manage. My main intent in this regard is to work with ComReg, which has been in existence for ten years and has considerable experience, and my Department to consider all the consequences of any such separation, but not to commit the State to anything as yet.

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