Sinn Féin slams Government for poor broadband rate

Sinn Féin's communications spokesperson Séan Crowe TD blamed Ireland’s poor take-up of broadband on the “flawed broadband policies of this Government and the Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey”.

Deputy Crowe said: “Ireland now ranks second lowest when it comes to broadband take-up in the European Union. Our telecommunications farce can be traced back to this Government’s decision to privatise Telecom Eireann (now eircom) in 1999."

"With this selling off of state assets, insatiable profit making took precedence over the construction and modernisation of our telecommunications infrastructure. In every attempt to get eircom to invest in broadband and infrastructure, the Government were humiliatingly told where to go by eircom."

It is estimated that approximately 8% of the Irish population can access broadband, compared to an average of 15.9% for the15 original EU countries.