Dáil debates

Tuesday, 6 February 2018

National Broadband Plan: Motion [Private Members]

 

9:25 pm

Photo of Brian StanleyBrian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Thebroadband plan to connect 542,000 homes and businesses with high-speed broadband is in complete disarray. With only one bidder left in the procurement process the Government has lost control. I have warned it of this outcome many times over the last two years. The seeds of the fiasco were sewn in the privatisation of the State telecom company, Telecom Éireann, in 1999, which has turned out to be a disaster. Investments were made with taxpayers' money and it was built into a modern, state of the art communications network in the 1980s and 1990s by the workforce, only to be sold off under the Fianna Fáil Government in 1999. Sinn Féin said that the privatisation route with national broadband was not the way to go.

The rural broadband scheme was first announced six years ago and people are still waiting for access to broadband. We are no closer to connection today, or to shovels going into the ground, or indeed shovels even being put into the back of a lorry. The recent much heralded roll-out by Eir of 300,000 cherry-picked, easy to reach households means that a private company has the State over a barrel when it comes to negotiating the remaining connection of 542,000 homes and businesses without access. I warned the Minister of this eventuality on the day of the press conference which announced 300,000 household connections by Eir. The Minister's officials were there, and I remember the Minister's response. I have raised this issue with the Minister many times since then. I told him that once a private company was allowed to cherry-pick the connections the scheme would be in difficulty. That is the main reason that SIRO, the ESB and Vodafone pulled out, and the Minister and his officials know that. It is going to affect jobs in rural Ireland. It is going to affect farming, rural businesses and education.

State ownership would have facilitated a less complex and less expensive process. We in Sinn Féin are calling for a full examination of State ownership on the roll-out of this essential infrastructure. We have waited for six years, and for many years before that, to get to where we are now. Six, seven, eight or nine weeks is not going to make a big difference. We are also calling for a feasibility study of using the State infrastructure that is held by the ESB for broadband roll-out and for the Government to place an obligation on existing and future broadband service providers to provide guaranteed minimum speeds. The Minister speaks about the maximum speed he wants. We need minimum speeds. That is the key to it. The access to and quality of broadband speeds fluctuates, depending on what time of the day it is, in parts of rural Ireland. Broadband is vital if we are to have any form of economic development in rural Ireland.

The communications network is a perfect example of what not to do with State infrastructure and where privatisation has not served the people. Fianna Fáil is now calling for public ownership, and that is to be welcomed. We agree with it, but it is joining the party late. We have repeatedly called for public ownership. It is good that Fianna Fáil is now supporting this, but what happened with Telecom Éireann in 1999 was a pity. If it could do it again, would Fianna Fáil have privatised Telecom Éireann? Was it a bad decision? As a result of privatisation we are now in a situation where, through the national broadband plan, the State will be renting back poles at €20 plus which were bought, paid for and erected by Telecom Éireann using public money.

The chain of negative events that encompasses our telecommunications infrastructure is now having the effect of reducing any potential economic growth in the regions in this State. The Minister spoke about 20% coverage. The facts are that 540,000 households and businesses - almost one third of households - are waiting for this under the national broadband scheme.

We cannot hope to achieve any kind of proper decentralisation or regional planning, organise the distribution of economic growth across the State or increase the output of what the IDA and Enterprise Ireland are doing in rural Ireland unless we get this broadband scheme up and running properly. We cannot do any of these things until we have a functioning communications network in rural Ireland. We do not have that, and it does not seem likely that we will have it in the near future. The Minister has said that it is amazing that there is a team of 80 or more civil servants and outside experts working on this. He listed them off and said that we should not question this scheme. Of course, they are hired, and considering who these people are, it is clear that their agenda is to privatise the scheme. That is what they were hired to do. They have provided the advice that has brought us to where we are now. The Government has gone down the privatisation route, and the scheme has become the play thing of international capitalists. The Minister has hit a brick wall with it. The Department has a theme of 80 plus. There are tender documents involved that contain millions of words. The companies will have the Department tied up in knots. As a result there is only one bidder left in the procurement process, with Eir having circled and donuted around towns and villages, where there are now hubs of houses in rural areas among the first 300,000 easy to reach customers. The next bidder is going to have an effective monopoly. Eir pulled out mainly because the Government allowed the connections to be cherry-picked.

This is the largest contract the State has ever undertaken, and the only bidder is a reasonably small telecoms company. The heavyweights have pulled out. The Minister of State can shake his head.

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