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

Deputy Dooley would, correctly, have come in here today and criticised me if this system had fallen apart and Mr. McCourt had said that the Government and the Minister of the day refused to meet him and as a result he was withdrawing from the process. Deputy Dooley sat across from me at a lunch table in December when I sat beside Richard Moat, who was involved in the bidding process at that stage. The reality is that we have a lot of the communications sector involved in the process in one form or another. I am Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment and we have significant challenges in relation to broadband coverage. In conjunction with the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, I have achieved much success with the broadband task force. That required engagement with the industry, first, to identify where the bottlenecks were and, second, to unblock them. We have made significant progress. We released an 86% increase in capacity in the broadband spectrum. We were the first country in Europe to auction off 5G capable network. There is a lot happening here. There is a lot of interest in this country because of the decisions that are being taken by my Department and the Government.

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