Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This is a complex area of policy. It is not easy. I wish the Minister the best of luck because we need a good outcome. We need good broadband everywhere to lift our economy. I think this should go back to committee. We should sit down and go through the real detail and look at what the different options are, because the complexity is extensive.

There is a slight difference between broadband and water, electricity or other networks because there are three or four ways of getting broadband to a house. It can go through the TV cable, wireless and mobile but it is likely to be fibre broadband. If we looked in real detail perhaps we would come to the conclusion that we want fibre everywhere. Maybe it would cost us more but if we are investing for 25 years that is what we should be doing. One of the questions I would like to ask in committee is what standards we are setting and go into the real detail of different options so we can advise on it. I hope there is still a process included in the timeline to consider this issue.

The real issue is whether we are creating a monopoly by investing in 700,000 or 800,000 houses and providing a subsidised solution. Are we effectively saying it is the technology that will serve those houses in the coming years or do we expect there will still be market competition between other technologies at the same time?

If, as everyone is saying here, 30 Mbps is not enough, are we too late to consider faster, higher standards and go for a solution that will last 25 years, one which fibre broadband would provide? It might make sense to keep this in State ownership. If it is not in State ownership, we have to make sure that whatever rule is in place there is open access for other operators and that there is real flexibility in how it is used. It is those details we should be debating next week in committee. It would have been better if it had been done prior to the Cabinet decision yesterday and for the Cabinet decision to have been shared more widely. We would not have this heated debate here after the fact.

Is it too late to revise the funding or the ownership model? That is a question I would like the Minister to address in his response. If not, will he give time in the committee for us to consider the complex and technical options and see if it is possible to accept the amendments that have been proposed and put them into practice? Is it already decided and a matter now of how we have to manage? I would be very interested to hear in committee the full detail of what the Minister is actually doing.

See this speech in context