Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

In those rural areas, there is action. There is a €200 million plus scheme to provide in the best way we can to the very rural areas which, as the Deputy said, are most sensitive to this. We have gone further than that. We have gone to Europe where there is European Union funding available for a rural broadband scheme to get to the last 10,000 houses which will be covered by that scheme. We deliberately set out to try to give universal coverage across this island in order that no one is left behind.

At the same time, we must ramp up the speeds and let the technologies come here. New satellite systems are being rapidly developed where speeds are a multiple of what they were a year ago. That market-led competitive pressure is leading to new technologies and it is the best way to deliver those higher speeds.

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