Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Despite what Deputy Kevin Humphreys had to say, the Minister is aware that I have had a long-standing interest in broadband. I have tried to be constructive in what I have said, even if I have tried to push the boat out and see a vision the Minister would ultimately share with me - that we be known as a small island with the ultimate in broadband connectivity. Barriers exist which frustrated me in government and which no doubt frustrate the Minister.

The Minister comes from a background of union involvement. Unions were traditionally very supportive of the view that where basic infrastructure was involved, there was nothing wrong with the State getting involved and ensuring that ordinary citizens had basic services. That is a very old view in this State. It is one that has served us well, particularly in the area of electricity supply. I refer to the idea of a universal service provided at an equal standard right across the nation. It is strange to say that if we go back 100 years the postal service went to every house without question for the same value stamp.

When telephones were introduced, no matter how far up the hill one lived, so long as one was willing to pay the connection charge, one could make and receive telephone calls from anywhere. After the Second World War, a decision was made to bring electricity to every building in the country. In my time as a Minister, I was delighted to finish off the last of that programme in bringing electricity to very isolated areas. It is time now, despite European rules, that we made it absolutely clear that Internet connectivity, essentially connectivity to the world, should be universally available.

When we discuss this issue we must acknowledge increased mobility and that for high-end people the office is often wherever they are. I congratulate the Minister on the web summit held in Dublin last autumn. When our guests from Silicon Valley were here, there is no doubt they were accessing the Internet through fibre-optic connections to continue their worldwide business, taking into account that Tokyo and Singapore are so many hours ahead while west coast America is so many hours behind. A fair number of these people wound up on Achill Island for the weekend of the summit and I can testify they had a tremendous time there. However, it remained that when they were on Achill Island on Friday afternoon, it was early day on the west coast of America, and on Monday morning when they left, Japan, Singapore and the Far East had nearly finished Monday. These people would have been anxious to plug in to do business across the world and expected the same level of connectivity as they had in Dublin. That is their lifestyle. However, as well as catering for high-end Internet users, good connectivity is important for the convenience of those of us who live in rural areas. Access to broadband is important. No matter where one is, one should be able plug in.

I remember having endless arguments when we were in government - arguments the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, had when he was in government before - about broadband roll-out. I know the Minister has the target of 30 Mb/s as being good enough broadband provision for rural areas. I also know that is probably not his choice but that he has been forced into this corner by some ridiculous European rule that one cannot specify the type of broadband provision one wants. We all use smartphones all the time and I am a great believer in radio broadband whether it is in an urban or rural setting. I believe we need 30 Mb/s everywhere but it is not a substitute for having access to 100 Mb/s in one’s home. With the development of technology, the idea is ridiculous that we will continue to live in a two broadband-speed world where people in Dublin will have several choices for getting their television, telephone and limitless Internet access through a fibre-optic cable to their house while those living further from urban centres will have to be satisfied with multi-providers.

These days fibre is cheaper than copper. If we were able to run copper to every premises in the country, then surely, with new technology, it should not be beyond our ability to run fibre to every house. The Minister claims there will be an enormous cost to this but it might not be. I understand that 90% of the cost of rolling out fibre underground relates to ducting while only 10% relates to the actual fibre cable. One could hang it along the electricity transmission lines without having to plough it underground. Now, there is the possibility of the ESB using a machine to run the fibre cable along its main transmission cables. Running fibre out is much cheaper than running a copper line out. This is a good step forward by the ESB.

When we look at broadband penetration in other countries, we see they opted for fibre over copper because it gives limitless Internet access, maintains good speed and does not interfere with the quality of television reception or Skype, for example. We should set the target to be the first country in Europe to bring fibre to every premises. We should look at the barriers associated with cost, technology and European Union rules and overcome each of them. Working out much of this will happen commercially but there will be areas that will require subsidies. It should be remembered, however, that the areas of the most dispersed populations tend to be the areas of greatest community effort and co-operation. Many of them have all sorts of social schemes that have delivered from footpaths to streetlights. There is also the new rural development programme coming on stream that could be tapped for funding.

If it were decided to underground the fibre roll-out, then it should be remembered ducting will make up 90% of the cost. There could be self-help schemes providing the ducting to a national standard. Then the Minister could ask the telcos to provide the fibre.

I welcome this Bill and the probable entry of a very successful semi-State company into the telco industry again. I hope it will provide good competition and that through commercial forces it will roll out fibre with ever better and cheaper technologies as far as is possible on a commercial basis. I believe our vision has to go further, however, and that we should use the same vision and common sense that in 1944 saw the roll-out of electricity to every house. As Deputy Naughten said, fibre is today what electricity was in the 1940s. There were many in the 1940s who did not believe electricity would play such a part in their lives. When the ESB was canvassing people on the roll-out in the 1940s, it had a great difficulty in getting people to accept it. Once they got it, very few said they no longer wanted electricity and could live quite happily without it. The same is true for fibre. In this small island that only measures 150 miles by 130 miles, I believe our ambition should be fibre for all.

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