Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen, and wish him well in his Department. Speaking about the end of the year returns for Shannon Development last January, the chief executive, Mr. Thompstone, said that to be truly competitive in the knowledge based economy, Ireland must have ultra high speed broadband available in every part of the country. Clients from major international corporations, he said, will not wait a few years for the private sector to provide a vital piece of communications infrastructure but will simply vote with their feet and go elsewhere. The chairman of ComReg said that Ireland's broadband is two years behind what is available in other EU countries. Clearly we are playing catch up.

There is an urgent need for investment in this area to bring Ireland into line with other countries. However, I am not sure that urgency is evident from the Government and its policies, despite the fact that this industry was worth €4.65 billion in 2007 in revenue to the State. In fact, the opposite appears to be the case with regard to investment in broadband. The Minister, when he was appointed, immediately took €10 million in capital funding out of broadband to allocate it to another area under his control. The telecommunications regulator, ComReg, which is funded from fees and levies it imposes on the industry, had a surplus in 2005 of €8.5 million and of €13.5 million in 2006. That is a total of €32 million of investment taken out of broadband. This problem must be addressed. Fine Gael has outlined urgent proposals and I urge the Minister to take them on board and work with us to ensure a better service for the country.

Other speakers have been parochial in their contributions and I intend to follow suit. It is inexplicable that the provincial town of Thurles was left out of phase II of MANs. I had correspondence from the Department today which suggests that Thurles will be considered for the next phase, along with 30 other towns in the final roll out of broadband. Whatever price the Government is paying Deputy Lowry for his support, I call on the Minister to clarify this as the Deputy and I are at one in believing that Thurles urgently requires broadband. According to the map provided by the regulator, north Tipperary has virtually full coverage but that is wrong and should be amended to identify the areas that cannot be served by Eircom or other providers. If it is wireless coverage, the wireless companies should be allowed to move into the area and be specific about what they can do.

A number of exchanges are due to be upgraded. I tried to find out the timeframe for the upgrading. Areas such as Gortnagoona, my local area, and Gortnahoe, at the other end of the constituency, are due to be upgraded but Eircom could not tell me when it would happen. It only said it will be done by 2009. However, the company also said it could not guarantee broadband to anybody living in excess of 2 km from the exchange. This gives rise to a number of issues. If the Government put the same emphasis on and investment into the delivery of broadband as it has into the failed decentralisation scheme, it would provide a far better quality of life for people in rural Ireland by allowing them to live and work there and do away with two of the major costs to employment, child care and transport. There is a duty on the Government to provide broadband to everybody in Ireland, particularly in rural areas, and avoid creating a rural-urban divide.

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