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

I entirely agree with Senator Burke that in the 21st century high-quality connectivity is as important a part of the infrastructure as are energy, roads or water. It is puzzling that a new community should be left bereft of the services Senator Burke has outlined. All I can say is that we have two very radical initiatives under way which I think will be revolutionary in their impact in the provision of high-quality connectivity to rural Ireland. The first is the legislation that I took through this House some six weeks ago in the matter of enabling the ESB, in conjunction with the leading telecommunications company, to roll out fibre to parts of rural Ireland using its own supply infrastructure. That is a very important initiative and we will make an announcement in a couple of weeks on that.

The second initiative is the announcement of last week where the Government has committed €500 million to the direct State intervention to provide such quality connectivity. Unfortunately, we have to go through state aid rules. We have to do a detailed mapping exercise in order to satisfy the Commission that we can make a State intervention of this order. I have the letter from Senator Burke in respect of Courtbrack and I will be glad to examine it and see what I can do.