Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

While I thank the Minister of State for his reply, the figures are somewhat misleading in that according to my information, 1,577 schools have access to satellite-provided broadband, which is highly unreliable, weak and slow. If one is on a fixed-line connection, the further away one physically is from the local exchange, the weaker or slower is the signal. While the figure of more than 90% of schools having broadband connectivity appears to be satisfactory, the quality of that connection may not be. I have to hand an example of a school with 12 computers in which it is unusable, given the time it takes to download information or messages with file attachments. While the new round of tendering has been announced previously, the Minister of State has announced it in the House today. Can he assure me it will improve the quality of the broadband? That is the main complaint I receive from teachers in the school system.

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