Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I thank Deputy Costello for sharing his time. I am also grateful that we are taking the opportunity to debate the issue of jobs and economic growth. We have a Government that is fixated on the banking crisis, which was created largely by its own incompetence and ideology. We have a mammoth task of ensuring that we get people back to work and grow our economy.

One of the areas mentioned in the Labour Party amendment is broadband, on which I want to concentrate. Broadband is as important to this generation as electricity was to a previous one, in terms of providing the capacity and capability for economic growth, yet Ireland is currently in the bottom five OECD countries in terms of broadband performance. We have to deal with this. These are not the conditions in which we would choose to do so but we have got to deal with this basic infrastructural requirement. It is not being dealt with.

I was taken aback to learn that only a minority of small and medium enterprises actually trade on the Internet. I am conscious of a divide in the country. There are many areas where broadband is either not available or only available at a huge price or an unacceptable speed.

The privatisation of Eircom was a disaster. I believe the company is now trying to address some of the major issues it faces in a competent way. However, we cannot simply rely on the market. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, speaks about the smart economy with next generation networks and assures us that is up to the market to develop this. The market has failed and, in fact, the Government has failed. We appreciate that financial resources are not there in the way they were in the past, but that does not absolve any Government from confronting the issue of broadband development and ensuring that we have next generation broadband. If we do not, we will be unable to compete with countries that are developing, whether through the markets, because they are more developed and more competitive, or through State investment.

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