Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for that information. It is a bugbear of mine that it has taken so long to put in place an audit to establish the amount of broadband infrastructure owned by the State and its agencies or companies. That information is required in order that we can begin to concentrate on bridging the gaps in existing services to ensure we have a modern broadband infrastructure.

I welcome the Minister's assurance that the job has now been done. He indicated that the results will be included in the policy paper on next generation broadband which will be published "shortly". Will he provide a specific date? It is difficult not to be cynical about the timetable that has been set out for broadband roll-out when one considers how long it has taken the Department even to put in place a management contract for the second phase of the metropolitan area networks, MANs, project. I ask for a definitive indication of the date of publication of the policy paper on next generation broadband so that we can move on to have a proper debate on these issues.

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