Inadequate broadband - A lesson we must learn

Yesterday, Údarás na Gaeltachta made its contribution to what seems to be a growing sense that we have weathered the worst of the economic storm.

The agency recorded the lowest rate of job losses among client companies for 14 years, a net loss of 31 jobs.

Údarás did, though, sound a note of warning around sustaining jobs in peripheral areas, one that will echo right across rural Ireland, especially with anyone trying to run a communications-dependent business at even a slight remove from major centres of population.

The hoary legacy issue of poor broadband, warned the agency, is limiting growth in some areas. This is a consequence of the botched privatisation of Eircom all those years ago, and the ensuing cannibalism by carpet-bag investors.

This is a lesson that must be etched in the national consciousness and applied every time someone suggests selling off utilities such as water or electricity services. Once bitten...