John O'Mahony (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I want to contribute to the debate. I refer to delays which have taken place and obstacles of the past six or seven years, which are rooted in the selling off Eircom as a number of other speakers have said. Along with those obstacles, there has been a growing need in business, education and industry for broadband. As other speakers have said, plans will be announced next Friday but the biggest thing which could unlock the potential of rural and urban Ireland is the roll-out of broadband.

When Eir pulled out of the process a couple of weeks ago there was a collective view that it was a case of "Here we go again". I was glad that the Minister came out quickly and reassured us that the process was still on track. As Chairman of the committee which dealt with this issue during the lifetime of the previous Government, I am aware at first hand of the significant investment of time, money and expertise put into getting this right for once and for all, and not over-promising but delivering.I welcome the decision to go ahead with the process. Enet-SSE are very competent. Enet provided the metropolitan area network, MAN, in Claremorris, County Mayo, which has been very successful. There was a Fianna Fáil motion on this issue in the Dáil last week but I have no doubt if the Minister had said he would have a review to see how to proceed, there would have been other motions to say it has been held up long enough and asking why can we not go ahead with it. We have gone past playing political football with this. I always had good time for Senator Leyden, who is a very experienced Member of this House but his contribution today was not appropriate, to put it mildly. We need to get this sorted out and I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, and the Minister, Deputy Naughten, will get it right once and for all and let us not hear any more about rural and urban divides in this country.