Labour's Plan for Digital Ireland
Issued : Monday 31 January, 2011
Next-generation broadband is an essential component of our economic recovery. The availability of high speed broadband is crucial for business and job creation, as well as being key to attracting outside investment.
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Summary
Despite the often touted rhetoric of the Smart Economy, Ireland lags significantly behind the EU and the OECD in many crucial aspects. The failure of Fianna Fáil Governments over the past decade to roll out adequate connectivity has left Ireland languishing well behind our international competitors in the broadband stakes:
• Ireland currently ranks 22nd out of 30 countries in the OECD for Broadband access.
• Ireland’s 16-24 year olds rank 26th out of 27 in the EU for regular use of the Internet.
This paper lays out Labour’s plans to bring Ireland into the 21st century.
Labour in Government will:
• Pave the way for a new company NetCo which would begin the roll-out of Ireland’s Next Generation Broadband
• Instruct ComReg to aggressively pursue further Local-Loop Unbundling price reduction
• Develop a broadband rating system for every property being sold or rented
• Increase the digital literacy of the Irish population
• Appoint a Chief Information Officer to play a central role in encouraging Cloud Computing and improving e-Government
• Make the establishment of the Digital Single Market one of Ireland’s priorities in its European agenda
• Encourage investment in Next Generation Broadband by facilitating the appropriate regulatory culture
• Instruct ComReg to ensure all suppliers provide regular data on speeds throughout their networks
