Pat Rabbitte: "The rural electrification of the 21st century'

[PaddyJoe]

Another year, another minister and another bag of wind on broadband. Haven't we been hearing this since the 1990's?

Mr Rabbitte unveiled Delivering a Connected Society – A National Broadband Plan for Ireland in Croke Park this morning. The plan is based broadly on the Report of the Next Generation Broadband Taskforce, published last May.

State aid clearance by the European Commission will almost certainly be required to guarantee public funds are not substituting for potential private sector investment.

Preparation of that application is to start straight away, and the public funding may come from either the exchequer, the sale of State assets or other sources such as the National Pension Reserve Fund.

The Coalition is committed in the programme for government “to provide next generation broadband to every home and business in the State”. The plan being announced will set out the “policy and investment framework” to deliver this commitment.

The Minister outlined a series of "ambitious" targets. Apparently a minimum of 30Mbps will be available to all. No date mentioned, I notice.
Forgive me for not believing even the first word of this nonsense.