John Carty (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, and thank my colleague, Senator Ross, for bringing forward this opportunity to discuss broadband in Ireland today. There are many good parts to the Bill and there are weaknesses in it.

The Government has done quite an amount over recent years to implement broadband policies and to bring it to as many subscribers as possible. However, there are shortcomings. Senator Ross in his speech stated that more money could have been invested in the area ten years ago. I would go along with that, but at that time broadband was not high on the people's agenda. In the past four or five years broadband has become a major aspect of business. Indeed, in my part of the world in the west where in certain areas there is very poor supply, the demand for broadband is growing all the time.

In the past two years Eircom's share of the broadband market has dropped by 12% owing to healthy competition. The Government policy of metropolitan area networks and the group broadband scheme would have assisted the stimulation of competition. This is no harm because Eircom did not provide the service it was supposed to. The company failed the people and the business community badly in that it only wanted to provide broadband where there was a strong demand and did not want to provide it to the parts of the country where demand was weaker. Only for the other companies being in place, broadband would not have been available in many places.

There are more residential subscriptions in the higher speed category than in the lower speed category. Advances in technology and growing demand will continue to result in higher speeds. OECD broadband indicators define broadband as starting at 256 kbps, which is well below 2 mbps. This definition boosts figures for countries with lower speeds, leaving countries such as Ireland with higher speeds at a disadvantage. Representations have been made to the EU and will be reflected in future broadband performance indicators, a new measurement recently devised by the European Commission.

The Government only intervenes where there is a market failure. Currently, there is a lack of broadband availability in rural areas relative to the main urban centres. For that reason the Government has implemented various intervention policies and different companies have taken up the issue. Other parts of the Government's policy are being finalised at present. I come from the west and in parts the broadband service is very poor. The figures for the west are very low. The Mid-West Regional Authority stresses the need to bridge the digital divide in Ireland and, more specifically, in rural areas such as the west. The director of that authority said that people in rural areas are often unaware of the digital services available from the Government and the benefits of the Internet in general.

There are people in quite remote parts of County Mayo who are trying to operate small businesses. Their markets can be in America, England and other countries. They depend on broadband but the service is not sufficient to meet their needs. I ask the Minister to examine this. We were promised some time ago that the service would be improved but so far no great improvement has taken place. The people are annoyed about it, especially as some of them have come from other countries to settle in Mayo. The countries they left had a good service but where they live now does not. The Government is trying to provide Reach services such as motor taxation and Revenue services on-line. People are encouraged to use those websites but they are being discriminated against by the communications companies.

For those reasons, broadband accessibility in rural areas must be made a priority. In more remote rural areas people cannot get broadband even where satellite and other technologies are available. The installation fees for those areas are also quite high. People who operate small businesses, often from their own homes, find it difficult to get broadband while the price is also prohibitive.

I am delighted to have had the opportunity to bring these points to the Minister's attention. I urge the Minister to improve the service. Cities and bigger towns have a good service but the Minister should take the situation of people in rural areas into consideration and ensure money is diverted to improve their service.