Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

All Members of the House have supported the motivation behind the Bill. The idea is to use the existing infrastructure of the ESB to roll out future-proofed fibre optic cable to parts of Ireland that would not have a realistic prospect of that happening. It is a very innovative use of infrastructure in the ownership of a commercial State company. It proposes to do it by way of a joint venture with a leading telecommunications company. If I took on board Senator Ó Clochartaigh’s amendment it would tie the hands of the ESB in terms of the commercial negotiations with a telecommunications company on the funding of the roll-out. I have not yet seen the detail although I have been concerned with and supportive of the proposal for quite a long time. It is one of the most exciting projects that has come on the scene in terms of providing connectivity to parts of Ireland that otherwise could not remotely expect to have fibre optic cable. I presume the partner will come up with a great deal of the funding in order to allow that to happen. Apart from anything else I would be constraining that possibility if I were to accept the amendment.

If we have survived the hurricane of the past five years without privatising the ESB the Senator can be reasonably relaxed that we are likely to be able to defend the citadel into the foreseeable future. It is very difficult sometimes to get any credit for things that one does in this business but it is exceptionally difficult to get any credit for things that one stopped happening. I am personally very pleased - like Senator Ó Clochartaigh I have great respect for Senator Quinn – and proud that the ESB is still in State ownership. Senator Quinn did not say any different to that. What he said is that we ought not in primary legislation tie the hands of a future Administration in terms of the joint vehicle we are rolling out.

There are very good reasons the flexibility that exists at the moment to allow the ESB to do business as it thinks proper, in order to provide this service and to secure as much funding as possible with whomever it is it will partner, is a very good outcome in the public interest. The Internet has transformed the way we live and educate ourselves but it is also a curse because one cannot go to a public meeting these days without encountering some hob lawyer who has been on the Internet or some phony scientist who has accessed some crank in California who suggests that the sky will fall on Grafton Street if one does X, Y and Z.

It is almost impossible to compete with it. I forget where I was going with that point.