Results 3,301-3,320 of 5,164 for speaker:Joe O'Reilly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: Does Mr. Matthews accept that the committee was never involved or approached?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: I attend my parliamentary party meeting every week - Fine Gael is the largest party at this stage - but I do not remember any discussion with colleagues or any submissions at that level either. In any event, that is history. It is almost unreasonable at this stage for the association to be doing what it should have been doing a long time ago.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: In terms of the alleged flaws, does Mr. Matthews accept that Mr. Weckler from The Irish Timesis an acknowledged professional expert and journalistic commentator?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: I would have thought there is a general view that he knows what he is talking about. He, among others, said that to achieve fairness, as policymakers we cannot make a decision. Coming from my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan, it would be negligent of me if I stood idly by – to use that awful cliché – while a less sound system of providing broadband to people in isolated...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: Yes, quality and certitude.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: The broad-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: If they thought that, it would be much greater than 2%. They are saying that there may be 2% in a doomsday scenario. They will not get 2% with fibre optic and in that case, that 2% facility is there. That 2% in very isolated locations would have to be met.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: That is the conventional wisdom.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: Of the highest speed broadband to allow the person in the very isolated rural place to do work at home, have education at home, access education the same way as anyone else, access every service at home and be on a par and on the same standing as somebody in an urban centre. That has to be our policy objective.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: We are told that the way to do that is fibre. That is what is inherent in the broadband plan, hence the extra cost. I will come back to cost in a minute. The certitude is there. Our fear in respect of Mr. Matthews' plan is that a two-tier world would be created.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: It will be part, possibly for 2%.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: We are into semantics.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: That is almost Jesuitical.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: In that technical sense, in that instance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: For the generality up to that, for the 98% up to that 2%, one needs the fibre.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: I am two issues away from finish. This next issue is one of human reality that, as policymakers, we cannot avoid. We have had a number of such issues. There is a considerable campaign in Cavan-Monaghan regarding the undergrounding versus overgrounding of the cables of the North-South interconnector. The not-in-my-back-yard, NIMBY, syndrome is evident all over Ireland. In the abstract, it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: I was advised that it would be more.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: Here is our problem for Mr. Matthews to see. It is important we see his as well. It is being noted and will be part of our ultimate conclusions. However, he has to see our difficulty now. There is a political, policy and human rights imperative to get broadband to every home in the country quickly. Even under the Constitution, from a legalistic point of view, every citizen has to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2019)

Joe O'Reilly: As a resident of rural Ireland, I believe in those benefits and I believe my people have a right to them.