Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I wish that was the case but it is not.

Senator Daly raised the question of broadband and the inadequate speeds in certain parts of the country. That is true; however, after years of being disadvantaged by the manner of the privatisation of Telecom Éireann and the subsequent rip-offs at different stages, a great deal of progress has been made in recent years. By comparison to other countries, we are not doing that badly. A broadband service is available and exceptional service is available to large enterprises. There is a problem with speed and bandwidth in parts of rural Ireland. Senator Barrett raised the observations of the Comptroller and Auditor General and, in fairness to the Government that made the decision on the national broadband scheme, I think the Comptroller and Auditor General misunderstood what was being attempted. In other words, the national broadband scheme was an intervention by the State where the market had failed to deliver a broadband service. It was procured in the usual way in order to serve local electoral areas. It is not really fair to say that X million euro was spent on it. If one divides the number of people who have linked up to it into that X million, one gets a per-household cost. That distorts the picture. All we can do is to provide access; if a great many people do not want to take it up, we cannot go out with a whip and oblige them to. That is what happened here, and it is salutary. The policy up to now has been that the State will intervene where there is market failure. That may not be an adequate response in the context of accelerating change. However, the task force I chair is considering next-generation networks and so on. For people who say we must roll out a superhighway to every door, which was implicit in what Senator Ó Clochartaigh said, it is salutary to recall this. First of all, it is not feasible in the current environment. The commitment would cost the State in the order of €2.5 billion, and that kind of money is not around. However, if it was around, I am not sure the take-up would be at anything like that level of connectivity. The purpose of the task force is to compile a report that will attempt to map the country based on the contribution that can be made by the private telecommunications companies. The black spots will then be a challenge to the Government in terms of how it proposes to tackle the areas that are disadvantaged for reasons of topography, distance or whatever.

One or two contributors implied that broadband is delivered only over cable. In fact, broadband is delivered over a number of platforms - it could be mobile wireless, fixed wireless, copper cables or fibre-optic cables. We are making progress in that regard, although I would like to see a greater degree of uptake, especially by SMEs, than is the case at present. However, that is perhaps another day's discussion.

I agree with Senators Whelan, Daly, Ó Clochartaigh and others, who raised the question of the unfortunate incarceration of the lady in Tullamore. We have been endeavouring to do everything possible behind the scenes to mediate an acceptable outcome. It is an unfortunate situation; I can think of half a dozen people whom I would prefer to see hanging their Armani suits on the back of a door in Mountjoy. However, maybe it is a good thing that Ministers do not make those decisions, due to the separation of powers. What has happened is regrettable, but I must inform Senator Ó Clochartaigh that placing cables underground is not the solution. This lady's preoccupation is with her commercial forest and the commitment by the company to regrow the trees. If the lines were placed underground, the trees could not be replanted. What she wants is for the trees to be replanted to restore the symmetry of her forest, so placing the lines underground would not have resolved this problem. Sometimes one encounters these difficulties. However, I am glad to hear the Senator say that if we get around to extending that line to Connemara, we cannot anticipate any such problems and we will get a free run.