Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

To deal with Deputy Ó Caoláin's question on housing, we have meetings that just deal with the housing issue. That happens a number of times a year. The same happens in education, where there are meetings dedicated to educational issues. They would not normally be at the other meetings.

On the national broadband scheme, I am told it is 10% of the country. I am not arguing about whether that is the case but it is important that the roll-out is ongoing and the scheme is in place. I gave details earlier about the NBS contract and the work from July. I do not disagree with Deputy Coveney's point. By the way, I was not saying that the Global Crossing contract would have sorted it out but it was, at the time, advanced. In fact, had we continued along that line, perhaps we would have built on it but there was so much criticism at that time about it generally, not politically. There are good opportunities for companies and the private sector in this area and, obviously, we must work with them. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is involved in that process. Deputy Coveney's paper is helpful and constructive. The Minister's policy paper will be published next month and will examine market developments.

It is important to note that Eircom, one way or another, is important in this regard because of the assets it holds. Eircom's discussion document, which was submitted to the Minister, addressed a number of issues relating to the future provision of broadband, including the proposal to structure its network into separate wholesale and retail arms. As a private company, Eircom is entitled to separate ownership of the company into two different entities, provided the regulatory operations are dealt with. Any further engagement with Eircom will be on the basis of exploring how any changed ownership structure will impact on investment, particularly on the evolution of the next generation of broadband. Eircom is a major part of that process.

From the State's point of view, we must deal with the issue of competitiveness and how to get the other companies linked in. To have this done quickly, we need a plan, which hopefully we will have next month, that takes on board the views of the various companies. We need those companies to work with the State and to work together. I believe, having listened to many presentations and spoken to representatives of the companies, that if there was connectivity and co-operation between them and us, we could make progress very quickly on the issue of speed. In fairness, as companies, they are all prepared to invest. It is a question of getting them to work together. Unless we sort out the competition and rivalry issues, because there are a lot of companies in the market now, we will not make as much progress as we would like. The Minister is working hard, trying to get them to co-operate with one another.

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