Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his response. I concede that the number of people accessing broadband in Ireland has continued to increase. However, we face a huge challenge in terms of providing the next generation speeds required by companies, first and foremost in urban centres, if we are to be competitive with other countries.

I have a number of questions for the Minister. Is the management contract in place yet for MANs phase II? If not, why not? We have been waiting for almost a year now, since the preferred tender was chosen, E-Net. The Minister made a number of commitments last year following his consultation paper on next generation networks and their delivery. He said there would be open access fibre connections in place for all new buildings in Ireland. Is that happening? It was to happen by the end of last year. The Minister said there would be open access to all State-owned ducting infrastructure to lay fibre and that this would be available at an affordable price for companies. Is that happening? I am not aware it is. He said the target for schools was 100 mbps. What progress has been made on that since and how much State money is being spent on it? These questions relate to announcements the Minister has made, but on which he has not followed through. Perhaps he will give us an update on the situation now.

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