Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

To say DSL technology is old hat may not be completely accurate. There are evolutions in the DSL technology, the latest version being VDSL, which is a much higher speed, something like the 12 megabyte I mentioned earlier. This is an ongoing variation in terms of what is possible and there will be further variations as we move to next generation broadband networks where fibre optic cables are brought closer to either the exchange or to the cabinet on the street. That will mean there are towns which have exchanges enabled in that way that they could get high speed connections which may well involve VDSL or another variation of it.

The issue about the economy, competitiveness and the availability of broadband is crucial. Some 49% of our exports are in a digital form. It is crucial that we have high capacity connections. The experience on the ground is that larger employers are able to get fibre optic cables to the companies because they tend to have large-volume users and their experience compared to other international countries is reasonably good. We have strong global processing and a competitive market where operators like BT, Eircom and a range of other companies are looking to service that kind of higher-end commercial market.

The more crucial, difficult and important aspect for us is how we bring this to smaller enterprises, particularly those enterprises which are outside urban areas, so competition between a cable operator and an incumbent will see a much greater penetration of business being achieved reasonably quickly. These are the areas where we have to decide whether to intervene, be it through the national broadband scheme, the development of a backhaul network to try to assist operators to gain access to this area or the development of MANs and the review of that to find whether it is more appropriate to install it in larger rather than smaller towns.

The State has shown itself willing and able to make such investments, going back to the original investment in Global Crossing and moving to this investment in MANs. It is an ongoing and changing process because the technology and the competitive market are changing. We must take this into account and make sure no businesses or communities are left behind.

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