As Kevin Heffernan’s coffin left the Church of St Vincent de Paul on Dublin’s Griffith Avenue yesterday, a spontaneous applause enveloped the air.

Colossal damage is being done to the economy because of the slow pace of broadband roll-out, it was claimed today.

Lobby group Ireland Offline has drawn attention to eircom’s slow progress in meeting its target of 500,000 broadband connections by December 2007.

Consumer group IrelandOffline this morning expressed their frustration with the latest news that eircom has appealed a recent ComReg directive.