Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is absolutely right that we should not simply rest on our laurels or wait for the national broadband plan and not do anything else. There are large areas in other parts of the country not in the intervention area and we have to have an eye on them. Competition does help here, particularly where a technology evolves. There may be innovation occurring in fixed wireless or other wireless systems that may even move into areas we had not expected. We should certainly encourage and support that without interfering directly in the market.

The way the national broadband area is configured is, by tradition, more rural. In terms of the way the previous agreement was done with Eir, the first surrounding area around a town would typically be an Eir area where it is rolling out high speed broadband very successfully, even if its customer service is letting it down. The area beyond that then is the national broadband area. It is not just the national broadband plan. We also tend to have Eir doing the hinterland area around most towns. In the larger towns and cities we tend to have competition, be it from the cable provider or a range of different providers including SIRO, Eir and a number of others, so it would be more difficult in rural Ireland. That is why the national broadband plan is there but we may see other potential providers.

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