Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I thank everyone who contributed to this debate on all sides but in particular my Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin colleagues who are supporting the motion.

This was a genuine effort by Fine Gael to move the broadband debate forward in a positive way by proposing practical actions that were not difficult for the Government to agree to. The response from Government was to produce an alternative motion which it will vote through later which offers nothing to this debate except to offer self praise and to support more consultation and more forums looking for answers.

Last night the Minister opened his speech by saying he welcomed the opportunity to make a detailed contribution to the debate on the broadband challenge. I expected something new from him. I expected some ambition and some passion, the kind of passion we get all the time when he speaks about climate change. Instead, what we got was a history lesson by and large; a history lesson on the metropolitan area networks and how they came about; a history lesson on the performance of the regulator in unbundling local loops; a history lesson on the group broadband scheme even though it has not been in place since 2006 and a history lesson on the successful connection for many schools to broadband.

He did not tell us a single thing we did not already know. Instead of adding to the broadband debate, in terms of new thinking, he wasted everybody's time for 30 minutes. Not only that, but much of what he said last night and much of what is proposed in the Government's motion totally contradicts his own views of less than a year ago. Let me look at the MAN and the group broadband schemes in particular. The Government's amendment states that it:

commends:

the Government for its positive interventions, such as supporting the construction of Metropolitan Area Networks, through investment of €175 million for networks built or under construction in 93 regional cities and towns and providing capital grants under the County and Group Broadband Scheme.

Less than a year ago, before the Minister took office, when he frontbench spokesperson for the Green Party on communications he said:

The MANS project, in particular, has been a spectacular waste of public money. The first phase of MANS was built at a cost of €85 million and it became immediately apparent that the scheme was not working. Despite this spectacularly poor return on the State's investment, the Government continued to plough a further €118 million into the second phase of MANS, digging holes around the country to lay fibre cable which will never be lit up.

The Government's group broadband scheme which was meant to provide broadband access to more remote areas of the country has been a total failure. They have thrown good money after bad and have left us without the broadband services our industries need, if we are to continue to thrive as a knowledge economy.

How things have changed in eight months. He now gives the Department's view and the Department's rhetoric. The new and ambitious thinking he had when on this side is nowhere to be seen.

In this debate we need solutions. We need solutions on the immediate issues of availability for everybody and speeds in terms of next generation access. I believe that last night the Minister misled the Dáil by raising expectations of the national broadband scheme, saying it would deliver broadband in every area that does not have broadband connectivity by 1 July 2008. I hope he is right but I think he is wrong. This is the map that he and the Department use for deciding where there is to be broadband provision and where there is no provision.

I will take two counties on which I have some information. Last night I pointed to County Leitrim where a survey was taken of 1,200 people which showed that 50% of people who responded to this survey have no access to broadband. Yet the Department's map shows that Leitrim has almost full connectivity. In terms of Kilkenny, an area in which Deputy Hogan will be interested, I have here a file of broadband correspondence only from Kilkenny. The map shows full connectivity for that county. We need a review of that and we need to be very wary of raising expectations that the national broadband scheme will bring broadband to every part of the country that does not currently have it because we are talking about hundreds of thousands of people.

In terms of next generation access we need to deliver on speeds and put actions in place, not have endless consultation. This motion is about what we want Ireland to look like in five or ten years. We need a Minister and a Government who can look and plan ahead for what industry, households and consumers need. Instead, we have a Government which just wants to protect itself through its amendment. We propose actions that can prepare for the future, light up Ireland in terms of broadband connectivity and anticipate the technologies that will provide the solutions of the future to rural as well as urban parts of Ireland. We need a Minister to work with us to buy into that but we do not have one. I commend the motion to the House.

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