Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I believe it should always be a national priority to have infrastructure in State hands. If the private sector is investing, it is for a good reason. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, referred to some figures. I will offer some further figures and perhaps the Minister of State can deny them or explain why there is a difference between them and the Forfás Cost of Doing Business in Ireland 2012 report, which compared the cost of broadband in various countries and found that the average price in Ireland was 7% higher than the OECD average and 27% higher than the euro area average. Ireland's Competitiveness Scorecard 2012, also published by Forfás, indicated that Ireland ranked poorly in terms of fibre connections and that it significantly lags behind other countries in terms of upgrading broadband access. There may have been a change since the report was produced but the report also stated that Ireland had only 0.5% fibre connection compared to Japan, where there is 61% connectivity, and South Korea, which has 57% connectivity, while the OECD average is 10.3%. The figures appear to contradict each other.

We all look forward to the realisation of the 2015 strategy, but by 2015 we will still need substantially greater investment than that which has already been proposed by private companies. This is where State funding needs to set in, especially once we move beyond the eastern coast. In rural areas there are small companies in small villages that are not getting proper access to fibre-based connections. State funding would make the future of these companies more feasible or at least allow them to complete on a level playing field with other companies located in some parts of this city and which have the best possible access. However, even in the city there are pockets that do not have the proper speeds required for doing business.

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