Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Nobody would dispute for a second the essential nature of rolling out broadband. That is why it features so heavily in the capital plan the previous Government adopted. The issue is the ownership of the network. A briefing document on ownership was distributed by the Department yesterday. It was a net decision on ownership. The Taoiseach says it will not be another Eircom. I believe it will be. If it does not remain in public ownership, we will be required at some stage to take it back into public ownership.

I was fearful, when this issue was divided between two Departments, that it would not be taken as seriously as it should be. Does the Taoiseach not accept that there were two proposals to Government yesterday? The first was the commercial stimulus or gap funding model which would see private contractors having ownership of the network at the end of the 25-year period, and the second was a full concession model. The Government's document states that the asset is handed back to the State after 25 years under the second model. Why was that model not accepted?

Will the Taoiseach put all the documentation before the House so we can see the basis for the decision and in the spirit of new politics - so-called - that we can have inputs in to making the correct long-term decision for the people of Ireland?

See this speech in context