Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It says a lot when I can speak as a Dublin Deputy and sympathise with the problems relating to rural broadband. I am from north county Dublin, which is less than 30 km from this place. Parts of my constituency are not connected to broadband. They include Ballyboughal and Oldtown. It is an absolute indictment of years of mismanagement and delay and is quite frankly shocking. It is the reason we are joint last in Europe for fibre connectivity, yet the best-case scenario that has been put in front of us is to have a full roll-out by 2022. The idea that we will achieve the best value for the taxpayer, customers, businesses and communities with a privatisation model is lunacy. I do not know if the Government was thinking it could delay things for so long and have things so bad that people would say they will take anything. That is not going to happen. People know about the example of Eircom and will be very concerned about what the Government has announced in this regard.

The planned minimum download speed of 30 Mbps is pathetic. Everybody knows that it will be antiquated before it is even delivered. The Minister's own points yesterday left big gaps. We only need to look at what happened with the privatised bin service to see where this type of disaster can lead us when we hand over the State's obligations to private companies. It is very short-sighted, leaves big gaps in provision and will inevitably lead to price gouging. Yesterday, the Minister told us that he does not even have a universal service obligation worked out but that he would raise the question at EU level. Again, this is not good enough. I compliment the Deputies in the Rural Alliance on tabling the motion. It is a key issue for people all over this country. I firmly support the amendment from Sinn Féin in this regard because, while the Rural Alliance acknowledges a greater role for the State, I do not think it goes far enough. I am glad we are discussing it, but the Government must really go back to the drawing board.

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