John Bruton
Ceist:63 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she will make a statement on the telecommunications document published by the National Competitiveness Council. [26412/98]
Written Answers - Telecommunications Sector.
The Government has welcomed the recently published statement by the national competitiveness council on telecommunications.
The report highlights a number of key Government achievements in the telecommunications sector over the past year. These include the bringing forward of the date for full liberalisation of the telecommunications sector from 1 January 2000 to 1 December 1998; the agreement signed by An Taoiseach and the President of the United States of America on electronic commerce; the scheduling of an initial public offering of Telecom Éireann shares for mid-1999; the announcement of significant Structural Funding for investment in broad band telecommunications; the decision to sell the State's shareholding in Cablelink on the condition that a significant investment is made in network upgrade as a multimedia platform and to provide voice telephony; the establishment and report of the expert advisory committee on telecommunications and the transposition of key EU telecommunications directives — Ireland is now regarded as one of the leading member states in terms of having a legal framework for effective competition in the telecommunications sector.
The report also calls for Government action across a number of Departments. Priorities identified by the council include business take-up of advanced telecommunications; deployment of advanced telecommunications infrastructure on a nationwide basis; development of policy in the area of electronic commerce; and development of digital TV.
These issues are being addressed as priority work items across Government Departments, including my own. We would all agree that we must maintain competitiveness if we are to sustain our exceptional economic success in recent years and the statement is a welcome contribution to the process of policy development to achieve this end.