Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and I compliment the independent Senators on putting down this motion. The Internet has made a fundamental change to the way we live our lives. I was an early adopter of the Internet when I started using it in 1993. I could tell in a few short months that my world had changed forever. When I had broadband installed in my house four years ago, I knew that this was a further step-change in the development of the Internet. I could see the vast improvements that this new speed made to the way we live our lives and how we interact with people. Many of us find it difficult to keep up with all the changes, which can be daunting. As a country, we are failing to keep up with the challenges of changing technology.

I would like to talk about how far we have come in the provision of broadband access, how we compare to other countries, and the work that remains to be done. The communications regulator made the point last May that access to broadband was unequal throughout the country. It referred especially to the fact that access was not great in rural areas. Half of all businesses in rural areas do not have access to broadband, not because it is not wanted, but because it is just not available. It is very frustrating for small businesses that want to use the Internet to grow but find that, because of geographical location, they cannot avail of broadband services. Many people and businesses have moved into areas on the expectation that they can access broadband, only to find that it is impossible to get access to broadband. It is not fair that we should discriminate against people or businesses in rural areas. They need access to the Internet to compete and to live their daily lives.

Some of the Minister's response beggars belief. He states that 15% of the population does not have access to broadband, which means that, due to density, about 35% of the country is not covered. He later states that the average number of subscribers per hundred in the EU is 18.2 and that we are at 15.4. He is admitting that we are below average yet he is asking us to commend him on it. It is a sure sign we have a dial-up Minister in a broadband age.

I am one of the Members of this Chamber who happens to own a business. It would be impossible for me to run a business today using dial-up services. We move megabytes of data around, and we just could not survive without access to broadband. Many companies in those sectors where we want to see growth, such as new technologies, are totally dependent on broadband, yet they just do not have it in rural areas. While we are lagging behind, other countries are steaming ahead both in availability of broadband and the technology being offered as well. Technology continues to advance rapidly across the world. While we are moving slowly to provide DSL access to people and businesses in Ireland, in other countries the talk is about ADSL2 or fibre optic broadband. In Japan, 36% of subscribers are using fibre optics to get on to the broadband network. As a result, Japan has the best and most advanced high-speed access to the Internet in the world. The transfer rate in Japan is 100 megabytes per second, which compares to the best in Ireland of 5 megabytes per second. That is a twentyfold increase in the speed available for businesses in Japan. It is shockingly low in Ireland.

Senator Walsh stated earlier that things were great, but we are now 28th in the European league table for speed. While the number of DSL connections in Japan continues to decrease as people take up fibre optics, here we are struggling to make sure people have access to DSL. No doubt some day in the distant future, a Minister will come into this House and state we have now got 100% access to DSL technology, but that is not good enough. Otherwise, a smart Alec will say we have a DSL Minister in a fibre optic age. I would not want to see that happening.

Broadband must reach people in many rural areas, but also in areas that are close to Dublin. Broadband was turned on only six weeks ago in Stamullen, which is a village only 20 miles up the road. We have set aside money for the metropolitan area network projects, and it was asked earlier whether this has been value for money. I agree with the Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, which stated that the money would be better spent in ensuring a roll out of broadband across the country, rather than focusing on a narrow geographical area. Last year, I led a successful campaign to introduce broadband in Stamullen, County Meath. We were told initially by Eircom it would not have made economic sense for the company to introduce broadband. With the help of the villagers, I managed to show Eircom that there were sufficient numbers to put in place a service. True to his word, the chairman of Eircom, Mr. Pierre Danon, admitted that we proved the business case and promised to install a service. It was turned on only six weeks ago. I got an email yesterday from a lady called Barbara, who is from the village. She stated:

I now finally have it up and running and it is great that I can now work from home two days a week, which is two days off the M1 and two days off the M50. In my mind, anything that gets me off the M50 has to be a good thing.

Broadband is not just an economic equation about whether it is justifiable for Eircom. It brings other social benefits. It means less congestion, lower emissions, more time at home and stronger family lives. That is how we need to look at broadband. It is not just about whether people can get on to an Internet connection quicker than the dial-up system; it is also about providing an essential service to people in their homes. It is like water and electricity. Until we treat it like that, we will not realise the benefits of broadband to the nation.