Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. I welcome the Minister to the House. He was given the poisoned chalice seven months ago, and I wish him well with it. Happy days, things were never better.

As the Minister knows, I was president of a trade union during the worst time the country went through, one could not employ a teacher unless one had permission from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. One could not fill a post in a hospital unless one had permission from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. In fact one could do nothing unless the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform sanctioned it.

Happy days, we have €3 billion for tax rebates to the workers; we have €3 billion to put into broadband. We have €1.7 billion to put into the national children's hospital. We have another €3 billion plus that was mentioned for the Cork transport system. I am sure there is another €3 billion or €4 billion somewhere else that can be used for another project. I am becoming deeply concerned as the life of this Government progresses that there are announcements being made that all of us in this Chamber know are unlikely to proceed or to get up and running before the end of this Government's term.Rural broadband is badly needed. No one in this room will disagree with that. I turn now to the technology issue which my colleague, Senator Horkan, spoke about. I taught computer technology for 25 years. It was a poisoned chalice because I spent every summer upskilling as the technology moved on. I remember my first computer had a 20 MB hard drive and the day I got it I thought I would never fill that space. I used to wonder what I would do with it. A few years later I have several terabytes of storage on my machine and I wonder if I will have enough to maintain the things we do with our technology today. We use it for everything from photographs to video editing, the list is endless.

There are people criticising the Minister, questioning why he is supporting the installation of broadband through fibre and maintaining he should adopt a plan to put in 5G. They ask what the status of fibre technology will be in ten years time. I am not sure I agree with that argument. I do not want to see a plethora of masts and regeneration stations at every turn. That is not a solution as far as I am concerned. A mix of both approaches may be a solution, where we could have 5G in densely populated areas, but that 5G technology will still require fibre to feed to it at the base station.

I am, however, deeply concerned about the issue of ownership. Senator Horkan spoke about rural electrification. Would we have electricity in every house in Ireland today if a private company had been running that entire process from day one? I do not like the term "preferred tender", by the way. It is the last and only tender the Minister has. Let us be straight and honest about this. Nobody else is willing to take on this project. Senator Horkan referred to the "remaining tender" and that is probably a more honest way of looking at it. Who in their right mind would bring in somebody to build a property for them and put €300,000 into the project themselves versus the builder's €200 only for the developer to then state he or she owns the house and rent will have to be paid?

The provider of the fibre link we will be putting around the country will retain ownership of the infrastructure for at least 25 years. While a regulator may be put in place to control the cost of access, the provider will have control of the tap and, therefore, control of the provision of services. Internet access can be turned off if the provider is unhappy with developments. As technology moves on, we have no idea how many things will be dependent on this broadband infrastructure. Who would have thought that it would be possible for us to stand on a beach in Spain accessing our bank accounts in Dublin to transfer funds from one account to another to make up a shortfall?

Let us look at how things have changed in the last five years. We have no idea where technology will be in five years' time. One of the fantastic things about technology is that it is always moving forward. I do not believe it is possible to future proof other than with fibre, which is what is being done. I compliment the plan and everybody in rural Ireland will be delighted with it. A man told me the other day that in his heart of hearts he wants this plan to work but his head is telling him that something about the entire process is rotten. We are putting €3 billion of our hard earned tax moneys into something we will not own when complete. A commentator recently queried whether that matters given that it is only a few cables. It is an awful lot of cable and an awful lot of people are depending on it.

Neither the Minister, I nor anybody else can control the timeline. If this goes wrong, it is going to go so seriously wrong that it will not be funny. We have seen national infrastructure projects repeatedly going wrong. I refer to national projects of all types, from the famous voting machines that cost us €54 million, that we sold eventually for €9 each, through to motorways that were meant to cost €5.4 billion but cost something like €16.8 billion by the time they were finished. Major infrastructure projects like this never run smoothly. We are stuck with one supplier. We are putting a fortune into this project while that supplier is putting in a tiny amount of money in the grand scheme of things. That supplier will then own the network and access to the network when it is complete.

I ask the Minister to correct me on my next point because I am not 100% certain about the details. Details are being bandied about suggesting that in some of the most rural locations in Ireland, it could cost somewhere between €12,500 and €40,000 to connect up a very remote house. If that is true, it will be possible to get to the front door of a house with broadband and offer it to the householder only for that person to then state he or she does not want it. That will leave a broadband connection outside of that door that will never be used. Have we taken the time to go around and find out who wants this service?

I remember as a young man being with my father putting in gaslights in a modern bungalow up near Scarriff. We were putting in gas lights because the people who lived in the house could not afford to pay for the electric poles to bring electricity to their house. We are now going to bring broadband to the same area and it is going to cost nothing. I am deeply concerned about this project. I wonder how much of it is dragging us closer to an election and having happy days as we go in to it. It is the first time, I think, since the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was established that a Government Department or Minister has brushed aside its advice.