Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his response. It is clear that significant issues are involved. There was a time-sensitive proposal. The underlying reason for raising the issue is for the Department to be proactive in attracting investment and facilitating where possible tier one connectivity to this country. We are an open economy and we need greater investment into tier 1 traffic, in particular for the southern region. I cannot emphasise enough that it costs more for companies in the south to do business in this sphere than it does for any other area of the country. That issue needs to be addressed.

I realise that I have been granted only four minutes to raise this matter. The Minister will appreciate that if I were to send this information through the transatlantic cable, the amount of data transmitted in that time would take 250 years to read out. That is the type of information deficit we have. It is a big potential for Ireland and a great need in the south-west region. I hope the Minister's Department will take that fully into account.

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