Enda Kenny
Question:12 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the number of towns which are to benefit from her recent announcement of the roll-out of broadband and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10537/02]
Other Questions. - Broadband Access.
On 8 March I announced a major drive to bring high speed broadband access to 67 priority towns around the country. I launched phases one and two of a regional broadband programme which will, ultimately, see investment of up to €160 million in delivering town fibre-optic networks in key locations regionally. Both phases involve investment in each of the 26 counties.
Phase one of the broadband programme will see 19 towns, many in the Border, midlands and west region, targeted immediately. Metropolitan area fibre-optic networks will be built in these towns to link up with the backbone network in the country. I sent the details of this to all Deputies.
Additional Information.The town links will facilitate consumers, educational establishments, industry and business and provide “always on” low cost and high speed Internet access which will drive the Government's e-commerce agenda.
The first phase is being conducted in association with local and regional authorities which will receive 90% funding from the Exchequer. A total of €44 million is allocated this year in the Department of Public Enterprise Vote for this measure, which should be completed in full next year at a full cost of €60 million.
Phase two will witness the expansion of broadband networks in the remaining 48 towns. This will be completed through a public private partnership and involve a total investment of approximately €100 million. Phase two should be completed within three years.
Phase three, which is contingent on the success of the first two phases, will involve rolling out the programme to cover all 123 towns in the State with a population of 1,500 or over and the target date for completion is five years.
(Mayo): I thank the Minister for her reply. We do not have any broadband in this country. What we purport to be broadband is, in fact, ISDN which only downloads at about one third the speed of the ordinary, standard telephone. In that context, we would welcome broadband. Does the Minister accept that because of the system of charging that operates in this country, that is, one is charged by the minute rather than at a flat rate, broadband or the benefits of broadband will be largely outside the scope of the majority of people and small companies? It can cost up to €2,000 per month, for example, for continuous access to the Internet, whereas in the United States it costs $35, in Iran it costs the equivalent of €35 and the UK it costs about £40 sterling – flat rate – per month.
Acting Chairman
The Deputy should ask a question and conclude.
(Mayo): We will have the service in place – these large fibre-optic cables – but it is all about access.
Much of what the Deputy purports is correct. The provision of the fibre optic cable is 90% funded by the Government and 10% funded by local authorities. Over the next few weeks, my Department will draw up and sign the contracts with the local authorities. I think Mayo put in one for Ballina in the first phase which has been agreed. It is our wish – I have no doubt it will be fulfilled – that the provision of the infrastructure, that is, the broadband which is massively grant aided, will enable competition to come in and to deliver the last mile. Already it seems that is what will happen. Competition will drive the price down – that is what has happened in other countries. Last Tuesday when I was in Brussels and later that night at the dinner with Hillary Clinton, there was huge interest in this matter. The Deputy's premise is right but the application of the grant aid for the infrastructure will enable the companies to come in and provide the last mile at, I hope, competitive rates.
Does the Minister accept that the privatisation of the telecommunications industry has been an unmitigated disaster which has led to a situation which she has described where the local authorities and the State have to get directly involved in rolling out broadband around the country because the privatised industries controlled from abroad have told the Minister, the Taoiseach and the Government where to go? Even with serious grants available, they simply were not interested. Will there be permanent ownership of the infrastructure she is providing or does the Minister propose to use taxpayers' money to provide the infrastructure and then hand it over to private operators to satisfy this need for competition and the duplication that comes with the competition?
The realisation of £4 billion, which has gone into the pension fund and which I am glad neither Fine Gael nor Fianna Fáil intend to raid, is surely a good thing. The provision of broadband access for the first 19 towns, the first metropolitan fibre ring areas, will be leveraged on to phase two. The fruits of phase one will form the bedrock for phase two and so on to phase three. We all know – although we close our eyes and are very blinkered – that telecommunications stocks plunged from 1999 and onwards and are only now beginning to tread water again. Ownership of the fibre of the broadband infrastructure will be put through on a public private basis. We are now working out the legalities of these matters that will be worked into the contract which we will sign with the local authorities.
Ceist Uimhir 13.
I am hoarse because of the way Deputy O'Malley had us rushing.
He was absolutely right because you have to live within a timeframe.
(Mayo): In the national interest.
Yes, in the national interest.
On the point the Minister made about the pension fund, while the Government proposed to invest that pension fund in foreign armaments industries, the Labour Party proposed to invest it in Ireland.
The Labour Party proposed to raid the old people's fund. We proposed to keep it.