Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The privatised route for the provision of telecommunications, both with the original sale of Telecom Éireann and the completely privatised route for the national broadband plan, has not worked. There has been a long line of mistakes, false promises and false starts when it comes to broadband rollout. In 2002, Fianna Fáil when in government promised to roll out broadband on a national basis. The last Fine Gael Government unveiled the national broadband plan in 2012 but we are still no closer six years later. The programme for Government has a commitment "to provide broadband to every house and business in the country by 2020", which is not too far away, and still householders and businesses are waiting.

The State cannot be held over a barrel by international financiers but this is what has happened, although the Minister is trying to tell us it has not. He tells us he has 80 advisers. Those advisers should know this, as he and I know it. Anybody who has been to a fair or a market knows it - there is only one bidder. The State should have complete control when dealing with a project on this scale, which involves 542,000 premises, given this could improve quality of life and bring real economic opportunities to rural Ireland.

There is clearly a problem affecting every county in the State. In Laois there are 12,721 households and businesses in blackspot areas yet to be covered by the national broadband plan. I want to ask when those people will have broadband. There are almost 12,000 commuters leaving the county every morning because of the work situation. Some of these commuters work in small businesses that could be located in Laois and some could have work-from-home options if they had the broadband to sustain that. This is a county where the IDA has an appalling track record in creating employment. I and the other two Laois Deputies are due to meet the IDA next week to deal with this issue. In the absence of IDA development and of any major industries being brought to the area, local people are trying to develop their own businesses but they are hamstrung due to the lack of broadband, which goes right across the midlands. There are people contacting me from across my constituency and beyond. The absence of broadband is affecting farmers, who are now supposed to file for grants online, as well as small businesses and students - the list goes on.

The Minister said to me in this Chamber two weeks ago that if he was to do all of this again, he might not have taken this course. I asked him last night to tell me what course he would have taken with hindsight. In any case, what is the timeline for the route he is taking? What is the timeline for the completion of the work on the more than 12,000 homes in Laois and more than 542,000 across the country? With only one bidder, all the bargaining power is in its hands. What happens if that bidder withdraws? The Minister has not told us that and we need to know. What is plan B? I have not heard it and I would like to know what it is.

In the absence of a plan B, Sinn Féin proposes that we would have a speedy examination of the possibility of progressing the national broadband plan through greater State involvement, recognising the negative effects of the decision to privatise Telecom Éireann in 1999. We also propose looking at the feasibility of using existing State infrastructure and resources held by the ESB, which was interested in rolling this out but pulled out because the Minister allowed Eir to cherry-pick it, as is clear from what has happened. We also want to place an obligation on existing providers to ensure existing customers are guaranteed a minimum connection speed. The 542,000 households and businesses are waiting. We need a solution that will provide high speed broadband at an affordable price.

In his letter to the Eir CEO, the Minister stated that the draft contract negotiation phase of this project would not occur for several weeks. However, he tried to give us the impression a few minutes ago that everything is ready to go, despite what he said to the CEO in the third paragraph of that letter. I am not reassured about this from what the Minister has told us. This project is in deep trouble. I do not see anything wrong with spending seven, eight or nine weeks looking at this to see if we can take a better route.

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