Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, to the House for this debate on broadband and its future in Ireland. The Minister, Deputy Naughten, had to leave for a Cabinet sub-committee meeting but earlier he outlined his vision for the sector and how he intends to address the challenges for us all as a country.

I cannot continue without mentioning the irony of listening to Senator Leyden, who represents Fianna Fáil, who criticised the current Government and Minister regarding the challenges in rolling out broadband when the fundamental reason, as we all know, is that it was his party which sold out Telecom Éireann with the essential infrastructure of the ducting, poling and networking 20 years ago, which I remember well.