Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to debate the Supplementary Estimate. I agree with my colleague, Deputy Coveney, that the Minister is going the wrong way about trying to provide additional capital expenditure of €16.2 million for Sustainable Energy Ireland. What he proposes sets a dangerous precedent and is not a road we should take.

I take particular issue with the reduction of €10 million from the information and communications programme. This will badly affect the roll-out of broadband throughout the country. The €6.2 million relating to the energy programme concerns an energy research programme and, therefore, it is in order for that funding to be passed to Sustainable Energy Ireland. However, the transfer of €10 million from the roll-out of broadband is a serious concern.

I welcome the Minister's introduction of the new greener homes scheme, the warmer homes scheme and the house of tomorrow programme, which are a great success. The greener homes scheme provides assistance to homeowners who intend to purchase a new renewable energy heating system for either a new or existing home. Throughout the years we have been too reliant on fossil fuels, which are a limited resource and cause emissions harmful to the environment. These new schemes are the way forward. I welcome the grant support available to homeowners to make their homes greener and will advertise this support to my constituents in Dublin North-East.

On the issue of broadband, the Government has neglected rural Ireland by underfunding the broadband programme. The Minister's programme in this regard is not properly thought out and will not solve the urban and rural digital divide. Earlier this year the Government scrapped the rural broadband scheme. The abandonment of the scheme shows the Minister's utter contempt for people living in rural Ireland. The group broadband scheme, not unlike the group water scheme, meant towns were offered up to 50% of the cost of rolling out broadband capacity in their area. Towns only qualified for broadband funding under this scheme if they identified 30 people interested in getting broadband in their homes and managed to find a service provider. Otherwise, the Government would not provide the funding to help them get connected to a broadband network.

The failure of that scheme lies squarely at the feet of the Minister's predecessor and the previous Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Administration. We must learn from that failure and ensure that rural areas are connected to broadband. We saw from the previous scheme that only 7,200 subscribers signed up out of the potential 400,000. We must re-examine the lessons to be learned from that scheme and ensure the Government drives demand by supplying a broadband infrastructure at an affordable cost, thus encouraging customers to sign up for that scheme.

How does this Government expect people to decentralise from the city, particularly if they will not have access to the Internet when they move from the city? The Government has wasted more than three years and more than €5 million on this group broadband scheme. A new scheme has been introduced and I hope lessons can be learned from that.

The Minister has overall responsibility for ensuring we have a full national roll-out of adequate broadband infrastructure. If the Government begins to show the same commitment and determination to the provision of broadband as one of his predecessors showed towards electronic voting, the country will have a state of the art broadband service serving both the domestic and commercial sectors.

Will the Minister go back to his Department and look to raise the additional €10 million needed for Sustainable Energy Ireland through another channel? Taking this money from the information and communications technology programme sets a bad precedent. I ask the Minister to take the issue of broadband services in rural areas seriously and roll out broadband throughout the country.

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