Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Roscommon. It is a very significant issue for business. I have to hand a map produced by the European Regional Development Fund from 2017. It says there are 2.3 million premises in Ireland of which 1.4 million, a little more than 50%, can now access high-speed broadband services. The vast majority of those who do not have it are outside the Pale, that is, are outside Dublin. I note that 80% of small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, that failed during the recession were outside Dublin. I am not fighting with the Minister of State, or the Department or the Government - far from it - but I am stating the key, critical reason to drive this on as a key Government initiative. I have said before that I and others will support the Government in respect of developing that.

The area marked amber on the map to which I refer represents target areas in the State intervention. One can see how much is in the area; it is the vast majority of the country. I did not make this point; this was published by the European Regional Development Fund in the middle of last year.

Those are comments but I have one question. Reliability in broadband is critical. There is no point in having broadband unless it is reliable. It is essential that the Minister of State and his team ensures that we have good reliability for the whole of Ireland. Can he tell us the cost per household or per premises of the installation and the overall cost to the State because we now have only one tenderer in the procurement process? I felt sorry for the Minister when the announcement was made one afternoon a couple of weeks ago that Eir had pulled out. No Minister wants to deal with issues like that and it is not easy.

The world I live in involves a lot of key performance indicators, KPIs. The Minister's speech mentioned some figures, and he stated "By the end of 2018, it is envisaged that 79% of the population, 87% of schools and 96% of business parks will have access to high-speed broadband". With respect, 96% of business parks does not mean a lot to businesses because only a fraction of 1% of all businesses will be located in business parks. It is SMEs and businesses, such as those in Moycullen and Spiddal in Connemara, which employ three, four, five or six people, which are the engine of our economy, particularly in rural Ireland. I ask that the Government focus particularly on that area, not just the business parks. That means nothing to me.