Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I certainly would not choose the Eircom network. I have looked at that company's plans for rolling out fibre to cabinet and I suspect that many people living close to the towns served will not actually receive an adequate service on that basis.

The Government can make a strategic decision to roll out fibre to every house in the country, at which point the service can be opened up to the markets by providing open access to the fibre and allowing them to compete as they choose. I cannot see any company opting to provide a fibre connection to Arranmore and Tory islands. That is a serious problem because the people living there are entitled to the same connectivity as everybody else. I do not accept that the Department is as constrained as the Minister of State has suggested in terms of being unable to pick one technology over another. We have to make all technologies available to people and they will decide which they want to access. That is what real competition is about, not deciding that because wireless is available in a particular area, the State will not compete with it. That is not competition; it is boxing off areas for the particular providers.

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