Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We do not intend to repeat what happened with Eircom. This is not a publicly owned system. What is involved is extending broadband for the last mile to many businesses and houses in areas throughout the country that are deemed not to be commercially viable. It is an extension of the existing system. It is not a national publicly owned entity like the Eircom network. That is the first point.

The second point is that a choice has to be made. If we leave a situation where the State takes over the assets after 25 years, there is no incentive on whatever company or companies that own that system, from the tenth or 15th year onwards, to upgrade it, keep it in good shape and have it ready for handing over to the State. Why would they?

The intention is to be able to provide more than 750,000 individual premises with high quality, high speed broadband. That will deal with 100,000 kilometres of road network and 96% of the land mass of the country. That is what is involved here. It is anticipated that a contract will be awarded in 2017.

Deputy Howlin was an esteemed member of the Government dealing with public expenditure and reform and he knows that the choices to be made are always difficult, but in terms of the choice here, if we go for a fully owned public model, as the Deputy points out, the efficiency and the reduction in costs in the gap model adopted by Government yesterday on the recommendation of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources allows for serious sums of money to be spent on other issues like schools, primary care centres, hospitals and so on. That is a choice that has to be made, and the Government made its choice clearly, but I repeat that this is not a national publicly owned entity. This is an extension of privately owned facilities, and for that reason, the Government came down on the side of the gap funding model proposed by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources which will result, by independent regulation, in premises and businesses having access to that during and after the 25-year period but also to allow for the saving of serious sums of money that can be spent on other facilities people need throughout the country.

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