Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

First, I am not sure what the merits of underground versus overground in terms of electricity cables has to do with the roll out of broadband in terms of ducting. I do not see how those questions are relevant to each other.

I ask the Minister to give a little more detail on what is asked for in Question No. 121, which is the national audit of broadband infrastructure. Surely the place to start with any new national broadband strategy for next generation networks is to establish what is there currently, what we can use, where there are gaps that need to be filled and what technologies are available to fill those gaps. That would seem to be a basic obvious way to move forward.

The Minister stated his officials are working on a national audit of publicly-owned ducting, and that they will make tangible progress at some stage in 2009. There is another two months left in 2008. Why does it take so long to get basic information together from State-owned bodies as to the whereabouts of ducting for broadband infrastructure?

Can I get a timescale from the Minister as to when we will have that national audit on publicly-owned ducting? Is the Department looking at privately-owned infrastructure as well with a view to providing, through regulation, open access to it so there is an overall telecommunications web infrastructure across the country into which we can tap to provide more competition and more products at a cheaper price for consumers?

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