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

The answer I gave earlier to Deputy Moynihan covers Kerry as well and that is the plan. In the short term Deputy Griffin ought to examine if any of the areas to which he referred are covered under the national broadband strategy. The strategy was an agreement entered into between a leading telecommunications company and the previous Government and there is a facility under the agreement such that the company was required to deliver to a particular area. If it turns out that the company did not do so then there is a facility to take up that matter. In addition if there were individual premises at a disadvantage they would have had a facility under the rural broadband scheme to subscribe to it. I am unsure how many have done so but it may be that some of the premises to which Deputy Griffin referred are included in that.

Deputy Colreavy asked me if I believed there is wasteful or excessive international connectivity between here and Britain. That is not my advice but I will certainly check it. The Deputy will understand that given the nature of our industry these days as well as the growth of the services sector, international connectivity is crucial and an important aspect of our lifeline. In my answer I referred to the €500 million investment by Eircom in fibre roll-out to the cabinet infrastructure designed to hit 1.2 million premises. The UPC €500 million investment is in cable and fibre network. Anyway, there is no country in the world that I know of which has high quality fibre in remote areas of sparse population. That is the international precedent. In fact, parts of the United States have no broadband at all.

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