Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I share Senator Alex White's concerns about the economy. It is vital that with the current global climate that we keep our competitiveness up and our costs down. I was very concerned to see Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for telecoms indicate today that the cost of broadband in Ireland is too high. Her commission's annual report shows that the penetration levels of broadband in Ireland is just 16%, that is 3% below the average. We are better than countries like Bulgaria, Greece and Romania but we are way behind countries like the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and Finland. Something needs to be done in this regard.

One third of Irish rural dwellers have no access to broadband services. Commissioner Reding made the point that perhaps public subsidy is needed in this area. That is something we should consider. On the same day, ComReg's own report on the cost of the telecoms industry in Ireland shows that once again for the last quarter, Irish mobile telephone users are paying the highest revenue per user across Europe. We pay 60% higher than what the rest of Europe pays on average and we pay twice as much as the Germans. The Leader should ask the Minister to work with ComReg to come up with some sort of action programme so that we can retain our competitiveness in this time of global worry.