I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me the opportunity to raise this important issue. The market town of Kilrush which has a population of 2,678 is a very important town in west Clare. It is officially dedicated a heritage town with significant tourism potential. It boasts a 12-berth marina, Scattery Island, the Vandeleur walled gardens, golf and woodland trails.
It is unfortunate that Kilrush has suffered from industrial decline over the years. The recent census figures for west Clare are very worrying, with 20 of the 28 electoral divisions in the Kilrush rural area experiencing no growth or a decline in population. The entire Kilrush area showed a population decline of over 3% in the last census and while welcoming the decentralisation programme bringing 50 Revenue jobs to Kilrush, it is necessary to have an adequate telecommunications structure in place to enable this and future developments to be sustained in west Clare.
There is a bleak future for the small rural communities, particularly for sons and daughters of small farmers who have decided to leave west Clare to live and work in Ennis, Kilrush, Galway, Limerick and other areas because they do not have local industry to employ them. Farming is now becoming part time and many of these people are leaving west Clare to move to larger towns.
As the only Clare Deputy residing in west Clare I was very disappointed last week to learn that Kilrush was not included in the first round of the broadband action plan of 2005-2007. This was supposed to be a radical plan to increase competition, raise awareness of ICTs and extend high-speed connectivity to over 350,000 people in 88 towns throughout the country. For the reasons I mentioned earlier, Kilrush should have been included in the first round because this type of technology is critical for Kilrush if it is to attract new industry.
There is a prime example of how crucial technology is to the area. Nowcasting Limited was based in Kilrush in 1997 and commenced services in 1999. The company had developed a computerised system for sending weather information to ships via satellite and radio. Among the company's customers are the Irish navy, the RNLI and passenger and car ferry companies.
The company employed nine full-time staff along with contract workers. Soon after its establishment, the company found that telecommunications service in Kilrush were not satisfactory. The issue was not bandwidth but redundancy and reliability. Kilrush was located on a spur on the telecommunications network, which means there was only one way for traffic to travel, with the same way out. When the radio link went down, there was no service. As a result of this poor telecommunications system, the company moved its telecommunications capacity in November 2001 from Kilrush to Citywest, where it has an excellent facility with back-up systems for both telecommunications and electricity.
That is just one example. I am sure there are many other companies which would have looked at Kilrush but went elsewhere when they saw the poor telecommunications structure. Every job created in west Clare is vital. The 50 jobs announced for Kilrush in the Government decentralisation programme are the equivalent of 4,000 or 5,000 jobs for Dublin. If these jobs are to operate efficiently when they come to Kilrush, the area needs broadband technology. It needs such technology to attract new IT industries.
The task force set up in Kilrush sent a submission to the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and made a good case for Kilrush to be included in the first round, for which I congratulate it. The town has plenty of green field sites for industry but the missing link is broadband. I know that €140 million has been committed to the action plan and the programme announced last week will cost €55 million. However, of the 41 towns included, not one is in County Clare, which is disappointing.
The people of west Clare are entitled to the service. The programme includes three towns in Kerry, four in Galway, seven in Cork and two in Tipperary and I congratulate the Ministers who have lobbied for their towns. However, I hope the Minister has good news and is in a position to announce broadband for Kilrush in the near future.