Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While I thank the Minister for the reply, I am still unclear as to the Government's strategy on the ownership of the infrastructure. Is it the Government's intention that most of the infrastructure - the spine of the system - will be in public ownership? Is it the Government's intention that the spine and the connections to the more rural areas will be in public ownership? Alternatively, is it the Government's intention to hand ownership of the infrastructure over to private industry? I ask the question because this will be a most valuable piece of infrastructure and it will be possible to make money from it.

I would prefer to see the Irish people, and not private investors, making that money through public ownership. If this is in private hands, we will be at the mercy of private companies, whose motivation naturally will be profit, and the Government will have no influence over what they charge or how they improve connectivity and the infrastructure.

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