Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The rate stood at 52% when the Government of Fine Gael and Independent Members took office. It is now over 70% and will be close to 80% by the end of the year. The increase has been driven very much by the national broadband plan. Commercial investors knew that this was coming and got in ahead of it, put the infrastructure in the ground and provided broadband for homes. However, it will still leave approximately 550,000 premises that will not be provided for by the commercial sector. That is where the Government must intervene. Where the market cannot provide, the Government must intervene. We see this as a project of enormous importance. It is possibly the largest single infrastructural investment in rural Ireland since the rural electrification scheme and it one we are determined to deliver.

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