Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

I take this opportunity to thank the Labour Party for providing us with an opportunity to discuss the broadband issue. In my time in this House, which is more than two years, there has been numerous discussions on the provision of broadband in Ireland. Each time we have debated this matter the issue close to most of our hearts has been the roll-out of broadband to all citizens in the country, be they living in Dublin, Cork, Galway, west Mayo or west Donegal. The universal availability of broadband provides economic, educational and telecommunications benefits. Progress has been made in respect of the delivery of broadband to Ireland. For example, the group broadband scheme was rolled out by the former Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, facilitated through the regional authorities working closely with local authorities. Thereafter, the national broadband scheme was approved in December 2008, the contract for which has been awarded to Hutchinson 3, trading as 3 Mobile, with a roll-out time of 21 months. It is hoped that service will be provided to many areas of Ireland during the next couple of months.

It is important that the national broadband scheme is delivered on time. I have every confidence in the Minister's ability to ensure this happens. I come from a rural constituency in Donegal South-West which I am sure is similar to other constituencies represented by Members of this House and the Minister of State. Often, these rural areas are left unserviced by broadband owing to the economic difficulties of providing the service, which approach is the one taken by the service provides, be it Eircom or others. It has always been my view that they fell short in their commitment to provide broadband to areas where it may not be economically viable to do so. They had a public service obligation to provide broadband to all homes and businesses in the country but they did not do so for economic reasons, meaning that the Government now has to intervene.

The national broadband scheme will provide broadband to many areas across the country. I was glad to hear from the Minister of State that the remaining 12,000 homes and businesses in rural parts of the country will be provided with broadband and that is has been recognised that those homes and businesses deserve broadband connectivity. The European Commission has also recognised the importance of broadband access in these areas. It has been driving this issue for a number of years and is anxious to ensure that there is equality of broadband access across the European Union. Funding in this regard has been made available through the European economic recovery plan. It is hoped that the Government, in conjunction with the European Commission, can access that funding to ensure rural homes, many of them in my constituency, receive broadband. Townlands in my constituency with no broadband access include Brinalack, Dunlewey, Meenacladdy, Glasha and Bun an Inbhir. The majority of homes in those townlands have no broadband access.