Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)

It is a pity the Minister did not answer the question I tabled. He read out a list of what other people have done. My question was clear. I asked, "the way this country will achieve its target for high speed Internet access without significant Government capital investment".

The Telecommunications and Internet Federation, TIF, has bluntly said that achieving the EU target of 30Mbps for 100% of the population by 2020 and 100Mbps for 30% of the population will cost €1.5 billion. When will the Minister realise that the State will have to put its hand in its pocket at some stage to provide connections for those additional areas? It is easy for the industry to provide broadband connections for the urban areas but it will not do so for our population distributed in rural areas. The Minister can make a decision not to fund such connections but he is prepared to fund other aspects of his brief. He does not seem to be prepared to fund any aspect of this brief.

I again ask the Minister, at what stage and by how much is he prepared to fund the area of next generation broadband for the areas the industry will not reach?

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