Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)

There is a Dublin-specific issue we have to address. Fadó fadó when cable television came into people's houses - we did not have that luxury in the country, I do not know whether An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach did and Deputy Ó Snodaigh probably did - they had to break footpaths when they brought in cables and in many cases, left no ducting so there is a significant problem involving ducting in a lot of urban areas, particularly in Dublin, that we will have to address with local authorities. It will cost an awful lot of money. I know it is a particularly big issue in suburban Dublin and, in many cases, prevents the delivery of high-speed broadband. It is probably part of the next generation of problems we will have to fix in suburban areas, particularly in Dublin.

We can see the transformation not only in rural Ireland but in urban Ireland over the past number of years with access to proper telecommunications and connectivity. This is only right. We will continue to work on outages and the problems that are there.

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