Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

The first thing we have to do is pass the legislation tomorrow. That is the first crucial date and, as I said in my reply, we must proceed with the one-stop-shop this year. While I acknowledge that we have been behind, one of the primary reasons was that we had a series of ownerships in Eircom that took a short-term position, which was not investing in the networks. It seems to me that over a number of years it was extracting as much value out of the company as possible. I have high expectations that the new ownership, STT - which comes from a country where they have invested in very high-speed broadband and which has a telecoms company with the latest network technology there - will transfer some of that expertise and know-how into the network here to get value back on its investment. That is a crucial development I am looking at this year in order to increase speeds. What will incentivise it is the development by the cable network of DOCSIS 3 technology on that cable network, which will bring quicker broadband speeds to tens of thousands of houses this year and next year. It is that competition, as well as the prospect of fourth generation mobile, Wymex, new satellite technology or evolving fixed-wireless technology, which will allow speeds to double. They are doing so. It is a key requirement for us to keep pushing various companies to make investments, which will see customers getting the benefit of faster speeds. That can and will happen.

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