Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

-----and want to go further. We need higher speeds. Again, it is a fact that the competition I am pursuing is delivering that. The competition between the cable providers, the fixed line providers, the mobile providers, the WiMAX providers and the satellite providers is the best way to drive down prices and drive up speeds. That has been shown in market after market and it is working here.

The likes of the cable company investing in new cable networks will give 50 megabit download speeds. WiMAX deployment here is ahead of any other European country. We need those sorts of innovative solutions because of rural one-off housing levels.

However, it is not enough and we need to go further. One of the comparative advantages we have over other countries is our recently built State infrastructure where we can provide access to ducting, in particular on our road network, along our gas pipelines, along our rail tracks and along ESB wires, where it is already happening.

This one-stop-shop will help progress that. We must do it carefully and in a way that does not undermine the very competition which I have set out and which is delivering the higher speeds, lower prices and greater broadband.

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