Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Murphy is right. The putative €9.2 billion that was notionally allocated for the connecting Europe facility was diminished during the process leading to the conclusion of the multi-annual financial framework budgetary discussions. The figure on the telecommunications side now is a rather miserly €1 billion. However, I do not believe it will have much impact on our circumstances. This subject came up at a conference I attended yesterday morning involving Engineers Ireland. A leading representative of the telecommunications sector was there and she confirmed my remarks to the effect that the private commercial sector is not having a difficulty sourcing funding for telecommunications projects. There may well be some difficulties in other areas but not in the telecommunications area. To answer Deputy Murphy's question, I do not believe the development under the multi-annual financial framework will much impact on our digital inclusion policies.

Deputy Griffin knows that there are no lengths to which I would not be prepared to go to ensure that Kerry is in no way disadvantaged in any regard, except that the league team is struggling at the moment and that I can live with.

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