Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, 30 Mbps will never be and is not, as part of this contract, an upper limit for anything whatsoever. The contract that will be signed by whoever the successful bidder is, or bidders are, will be future-proofed for the next 25 years. That is why they have now committed to bringing fibre to the homes of the vast majority of premises across the country. As a result, we are going to see speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps. No one in this country is getting that at a domestic level at the moment and it is not being offered by any commercial operator, but we will be able to provide it. We are future-proofing this contract for the next 25 to 50 years.

With regard to school premises, there is not much point putting the facilities in place and then taking the attitude that Deputy Dooley is taking. First, we need to utilise the assets that are there and provide access to online courses in a range of subjects that are not available in those schools at the moment. There is no reason those schools cannot be opened in the evening as well. Some of them provide adult education classes and there are opportunities in that regard also. With the national task force on broadband and wireless, we are improving the existing coverage so people will be able to get services in the short term as well.

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