Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this topic. It is one of those debates that comes to this House and its committees quite often - the idea of providing adequate broadband to the country. It is parallel in importance to railway, road or other infrastructure in terms of driving economic activity. Broadband, literally, is vital in this day and age, not just for home use but to generate economic activity, be that in an urban or rural area. I know the Department has recognised this through the announcement of various schemes recently, such as the national broadband scheme, the Schools 100 Megabyte project, the metropolitan area networks and the rural broadband scheme.

The concern I wish to raise is the adequacy of the provision of broadband to certain parts of the country, which is proving very challenging. This country subscribes to the EU challenge to provide a minimum service of 30 megabytes per second to every household in the country by 2020. I am concerned this target is becoming unreachable or very difficult to attain. I can tell of an instance that happened recently in Bantry in south west Cork which shows the impact this service can have. It came about through the endeavours of a local councillor, Mary Hegarty, who met representatives of Amazon and gave them a proposition for jobs they could provide in the area if the technology and infrastructure were in place. They made the commitment and delivered on it, offering 26 jobs with Amazon, servicing technological aspects of that company. Regrettably, however, because we could not provide five megabyte per second service in certain areas, some of those jobs had to go. The impact of 26 jobs in a place like Bantry is a terrific good news story. Happily, the majority of people were able to take up the offer because the necessary five megabyte service was available. I reiterate the great impact this can have in a place like west Cork. It is as significant as some of the recent job announcements in more urban areas.

We need to move on. There are many parts of the country, rural areas in particular, that are not adequately provided. The figure given, for example, of 97% broadband coverage in the country is fine if one is talking about basic broadband service of one or two megabytes per second but that is not enough for economic activity. In this Chamber in the past 12 months or more we have had some intense debates on the closure of small schools. Such schools do not close because of lack of commitment by the Minister for Education and Skills or lack of finance provided by the Minister for Finance. Small schools close because there is an insufficient number of children. Garda stations and banks close for similar reasons. The banks show a different dynamic in that nine out of ten bank transactions are now done online. However, it is fruitless to point the many people who have a one-megabyte or minimum broadband service towards online access. Many of the policies we are implementing through budget cuts or corrections could be easily supplemented by investment in an adequate broadband service. People like James Whelton, for example, who recently figured in the Forbes Under 30 list, understand this. He has spoken about establishing the "coder dojo" classes about which we have heard. Such people realise the potential for every citizen in the State to use digital technology and what this can bring about.

I appeal to the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, and his Department to push forward and apply 30 megabyte per second technology to every household. There is no need to bring fibre optic networks to every house. They can be brought to an area and the technology exists to bounce the connection into every household. I look forward to the Minister's response and acknowledge his commitment in this area. This is an issue that needs to be highlighted.

See this speech in context