Broadband access 'essential', says Dail committee

Affordable broadband access is essential if Ireland is to successfully meet the challenges of being a knowledge economy, an Oireachtas committee insisted this afternoon.

Launching its report on the provision of a national broadband infrastructure, the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources said it was united in the belief that broadband was the "critical enabling technology" and described it as an "economic imperative".

It is the first time an Oireachtas Committee has examined the need for broadband access in the State.

"The engine of growth delivering economic and societal development has, in the past, often come from the development of physical infrastructure such as the railways, the electricity grid, the development of the road network, etc. however, today the infrastructure that will deliver the knowledge based economy is broadband", the committee says.

The report makes 12 recommendations including the development of a national broadband infrastructure plan this year and the appointment of a Minister of State with cross department responsibility for the rollout of a national broadband infrastructure and the development ofe-Government services.

It also says a target of connectivity running at five megabytes per second should be reached by 2006 and that this should double within a further two years. At present, broadband access is gives connectivity of no less than 512 kilobytes per second.

The report also says there should be closer co-operation between the Government, the telecoms industry and the end-users of broadband services and says that all national, regional, county and city development plans incorporate the provision of broadband infrastructure with such plans.