Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome the Bill which will formalise the situation in respect of fibre optic cables running from Killala to Galway. This was a very sensible move on the part of the Government, which was facilitated through Gas Networks Ireland. While the gas pipeline was being laid, ducting was also laid so that fibre optic cable could be placed within it. It means that the State or a company or agency did not have to go back onto people's land. As a solicitor I am very familiar with the situation having dealt with many people whose lands were required for the purposes of wayleaves.

Wayleaves were originally granted for a gas pipeline and ducting. I assume that all landowners have been compensated in respect of that part of the job which has been done and the Bill makes provision for any loss to land or disturbance which would occur in the future if the State or a company has to fix cables for any reason. I ask the Minister of State to clarify whether people will be compensated because clearly that is required.

The Bill is timely. I am glad the situation is being regularised. Wayleaves can be incredibly complex and can lead to all sorts of complexities in regard to land ownership, rights and entitlements as my colleague, Senator Burke, alluded to. It is best that everything is set out clearly, as envisaged in the Bill. We are at a point where the hot topic is balanced regional and rural development. The national planning framework will be launched on Friday. Ducting and fibre optic cabling is very practical for the economic development of the region.

Killala is the landfall point of a state-of-the-art transatlantic fibre optic cable from New York which connects to London and mainland Europe. There is a break out point in Killala, which means there can be access to the cable for a data centre or any other endeavour which requires access to fibre optic cable.We are looking for ways to grow our economy. The north and north west have particular issues in terms of a history of poor investment in infrastructure and they also lag behind in terms of job creation, which was identified in the draft national planning framework. There are plans to address this. However, this cable - and the connectivity it provides - offers a golden opportunity to create a technology hub in the area.

The Minister of State was in the House yesterday, as was the Minister, Deputy Naughten, to discuss the national broadband plan. In my county, there are six metropolitan area networks with very good broadband, although many isolated rural areas do not have broadband. There is a metropolitan area network in my home town of Ballina and quite good broadband. The biggest challenge, to which Senator Leyden may have alluded, is to bring fibre to premises because the fibre is there and there is a cost in that. The national broadband plan is ambitious in regard to bringing high-speed broadband to people's homes and premises but this cable presents an obvious opportunity.

The focus must also be on what the cable can deliver for this region because other regions do not have such a facility but we do and are looking for unique selling points. There is an appetite for that. There was all sorts of trouble with the data centre in Athenry in the Minister of State's county in terms of objections to planning permission. The matter is still not fully resolved. At the break-out point at the former Asahi plant in Killala, County Mayo, there is planning permission for a full data centre but we do not have one. I am not sure how that can be so when planning permission is cited as one of the key obstacles to the construction of such data centres.

The region has many selling points and I hope that the Minister of State, as a fellow representative from the west of Ireland, will bear that in mind at the many interdepartmental and intergovernmental meetings in terms of the whole-of-Government approach to and regional strategies for job creation. Something can be done with the opportunity offered by the cable but the progress from an idea to the actualisation of a benefit for the region must be kick-started. This can help to refocus interest and, it is to be hoped, investment in the region and we are ready, willing and able to snap up the resultant opportunities. I ask the Government to try to facilitate that.