Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I seek to share time with Deputies McHugh, Charles Flanagan and Coveney.

We have heard much hyperbole from the Government benches on this matter but very little on the action that needs to be taken. I am particularly disappointed to see the Government amendment as it waters down and neutralises the excellent proposals put forward by Deputy Coveney. I commend him on the work he has done in this area and the efforts he has made to highlight this key infrastructural area of our economy.

Ireland has a great opportunity to develop a knowledge-based economy, something that has been an aspiration since the early 1990s. However, the Government has failed miserably to achieve this. In terms of investment in job creation and competitiveness, broadband access is now as important as the infrastructural projects we hear of relating to transport and so on. I even suggest that broadband is more important than such projects in certain rural areas and Deputy O'Mahony gave a good example of this relating to tourism in County Mayo.

The issue of discrimination against children, in terms of educational opportunities lost through a lack of broadband access, has not been dwelt on in this debate. It is not acceptable that access to quality broadband is available in certain schools and to certain children while other schools and children are left behind. This is not in the interest of equality in society and it is not in the interest of our economy's future.

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, agrees with us and, effectively, accepts our facts, which are based on OECD and EU statistics, because he cannot argue against them. He also agrees that something must be done on this matter. He has been in office for eight months but in that period his only concrete proposal relating to this subject appears to be to set up a forum to discuss the problem further. I disagree with the Government in this regard because discussion forums, task forces and so on appear to have replaced governance. No decision making is evident and the only leadership on critical issues such as broadband comes from this side of the House. I think it is fair to say that the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Green Party Ministers have failed to take action and deliver on the policies they committed to at the beginning of this term of Government. This is unfortunate and I commend the motion to the House.

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