Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

There is no convincing those who do not want to be convinced.

We do not have anything like the level of service required but any fair-minded person would acknowledge significant progress has been made, particularly in the past 12 to 18 months. The Minister of State outlined that 85% of the country has broadband coverage. That is insufficient. The aim should be 100% coverage. In Britain coverage is at 99.9%. Full coverage should be our objective.

I note that the 653,000 broadband subscribers — mobile broadband subscribers can be excluded from the figures for comparative purposes — represents 15.4% of the population. While the gap in that regard with Europe has narrowed, we are comparing ourselves with the EU-27 member states, although I note the Minister of State referred to the EU-25, perhaps Romania and Bulgaria are excluded. With that percentage of subscribers at the end of the second quarter of 2007, we still stand 4% behind the EU average. I suspect that if we compared ourselves with the EU-15, we probably would be even further behind that EU average. That signals the challenge we face, which we should recognise.

The OECD has shown that Ireland is in first place with regard to the strongest per capita subscriber growth, namely, the catch-up to which the Minister of State referred. Broadband subscriptions now account for 63% of all Internet subscriptions. However, I signal a note of caution in regard to these comparisons. Only two of the 30 countries, Ireland and Australia, that are members of the OECD, match fully national data sources. The figures from the OECD appear to count significant number of connections that are below the broadband level we have here, which is the 256Kbps.

It is also necessary to examine how the comparisons are made. If every household in Ireland and elsewhere in the EU had broadband connection, we would be ranked 18th place in terms of broadband penetration because of vagaries within the system. They would include our unique demographics. We have a smaller number of households than other member states, we tend to have larger families, we have a significant rural population and lower density housing. When all these demographics are factored in, they tend to skew the comparisons. That must be also recognised.

I note what Senator O'Reilly said about the cost of broadband connection in Cavan. I would have thought we tend to pay more for the service here, as we do for many services. There tends to be an add-on cost for various service subscribers across a range of services. However, I was surprised to learn that broadband is widely available in this country at competitive rates of €20 to €30 per month, according to the Department's figures and I have no reason not to than accept that is the case.

Senator O'Toole referred to the reason we are lagging behind in broadband connectivity and playing catch up. I believe the privatisation of Eircom when it happened stood in the way of making progress in this area. It is easy to be wise in hindsight. If we could have foreseen those difficulties, we should have rolled out broadband before privatising that company.

The Minister of State referred to the local loop unbundling and reference was made to satellite connections. In this regard, I welcome the initiative by the Minister and the Department in the procurement process for the national broadband scheme. I understand a group will be set up to ensure it is rolled out.

We should acknowledge the scheme that was put in place in 2005 to provide broadband services to all our schools. The roll out of that scheme has had a 98% success rate. That is significant. The coming generation will need the use of this modern technology to make an impact on the development of Ireland incorporated into future decades.

While broadband roll-out has been slow, in recent times there has been added emphasis and that must be maintained to improve and increase the roll out. In preparing the draft policy paper, the Department, as a matter of urgency, should bring it to a conclusion as quickly as possible in order that the national advisory forum of experts can be put in place. That could be a significant driver in terms of the shortcomings in the system.

Speaking specifically on the motion, two years ago we had 208,000 broadband subscribers, we now have 698,000. The figure has increased by a factor of 3.5. That represents a significant growth within a two-year period, but we need to continue the emphasis that has been placed on broadband access.