Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I commend Senator Ross on bringing forward this Bill. It is worth pointing out the obvious that every Member of this House would like to see Ireland at the top of the OECD league for broadband rates. However, there are huge differences between us in the urgency and delivery of that happening.

The importance of broadband access is something my party has been pointing out for a long time. Broadband is not a luxury. It is a necessity and in a globalised world and an economy like ours, it is important that the Minister seizes the initiative to deliver on that. In these harsh economic times, however, the Government can still redeem itself and show it is committed to enterprise, innovation and investment, and indeed small business and people who want to have the option to work from home. Nobody can deny the link between a prosperous, strong, pro-business economy in the 21st century and the existence of high speed, next generation broadband infrastructure.

Ireland's raw materials are its people, and a highly skilled, educated workforce is vital to attract investment. So too is the infrastructure to allow such investment prosper, something we lack in the area of broadband. It is too important an issue for us to be lazy and renege on it. It cannot be put on the back-burner any longer. That is why I commend Senator Ross on putting this Bill before the House. It is borne out of frustration at the length of time it has taken for the Government to deliver on broadband. The national economy depends on it, as do all the rural and urban areas throughout Ireland. Every street and town in the country needs access to high-speed broadband at an affordable rate but we are four to five times more expensive than Germany. That excludes many people from access to broadband.

I thought the Minister's comments were merely excuses when he spoke about the grid becoming gridlocked, so to speak, and that there would be too many people, which would be a negative development. That is rubbish. In my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, broadband is vital to securing investment and ensuring we get high tech or research development based companies into our counties.

The Government should be focusing on upskilling workers, attracting foreign direct investment and selling our economy as a knowledge-based centre. That is not the case, however. It is important that the Minister ensures rural areas are not left behind, further adding to the inequality in terms of employment and opportunities. I hope he will listen to this debate and treat it with the urgency it deserves.

For a long time my colleague, Deputy Simon Coveney, has been calling on the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to take action. Senator Walsh spoke glowingly about how innovative the Minister is, and I accept that, but I cannot understand the reason he is delaying in this area. While the Minister did not accept Senator Ross's Bill, there is no talk of a date for his legislation. I question that and ask the Minister of State to get an answer for us on that.

The only way to ensure negotiations are opened up with all broadband service providers is to ensure a monopoly is not created. Will that happen? I do not know. It is one thing to be able to access broadband in a particular area but it is important to be able to afford it, especially in Longford-Westmeath.

The Fine Gael plan for a fibre-optic nation released this year sets out a cohesive strategy for ensuring Ireland is not left at a disadvantage. We must ensure that happens, and I ask that the Minister would take on board the broad thrust of these proposals.

Rural areas deserve the same opportunity to pitch for business, big and small. All Members in this House agree that small business is the way forward for our economy. The two and three jobs in a company are a way we can save our economy and it is in all their interests, therefore, that we have the necessary infrastructure to ensure people can work locally and in small towns and villages throughout our country.

I sincerely welcome Senator Ross's Bill. It is time we took action. It is a shocking statistic that Ireland is 33rd out of the 35 OECD countries in terms of broadband performance. Athlone is a gateway town but with the gateway innovation fund being dropped, I do not hold out very much hope for us getting the necessary infrastructure for broadband in the spatial strategy. However, I live in hope.

We have an extremely successful college in the town — Athlone Institute of Technology. We have an innovation centre that is second to none. Students graduate from that college every year with excellent skills. I ask that we be able to keep those graduates locally and have them working from the local area by providing the necessary infrastructure, namely, broadband. I do not believe that will happen, although I hope it will.

I welcome the aspiration in the Bill to set up a broadband commission to monitor progress. We all know from recent experience the necessity of having accountability and transparency, and that the Minister would appear before the joint committee twice a year. The thrust of Senator Ross's Bill is that we would have a progressive report on what is happening. That is the only way forward. It seems this is going on ad infinitum without any concrete proposals.

We need to attract business, develop an entrepreneurial spirit and give people the right tools to develop business from home. We talked about carbon footprint and families being able to have a quality of life, but the only way people can have a quality of life is if they have the necessary broadband facilities to be able to work from home.

I commend Senator Ross on bringing forward this Bill. I support him and thank him for putting this issue on the agenda and highlighting the delays and disappointments of the Government in its delivery of broadband throughout our rural areas.