Fears Cork may lose broadband improvements
MINISTER Ryan is the Arthur Daley of the government, a Cork councillor said this week, in response to the suggestion that major broadband improvements may only benefit the Dublin/Belfast corridor.
A meeting of Cork County Council was considering a motion from Councillor Noel Harrington, proposing that the council "initiate a process that would allow Cork county to connect to the Tier 1 Transatlantic line that lies just off the Cork coast".
Councillor Harrington called for communications to begin between the council and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to get access to this "information superhighway and economic opportunity".
"It would increase our economic capacity and would attract further foreign direct investment," Councillor Harrington said but, he added: "Minister Ryan is more interested in allowing this connectivity to take place somewhere along the Dublin/Belfast corridor."
Cork, and other regions, have proven their ability to attract foreign direct investment, Councillor Harrington continued, and the government needs to arm regions to continue with this work. In this region, he said: "We are very dependent on the pharmaceutical and biochemical industry... if anything happens in that sector we are particularly vulnerable."
He urged co-operation with, and exploitation of the potential of, CIT, ITT and the Tyndall Institute, and said: "We should be working with all the statutory agencies in the region to ensure that we are not left behind."
Seconding the motion, Councillor Dermot Sheehan said: "When it comes to broadband and communications, Minister Ryan has got as much publicity for himself as he possibly could without delivering anything of significance
"This is a major resource to have off our coastline and I fail to see why Dublin/Belfast is getting the precedence. If it's off the coastline, the whole country should benefit from it. Minister Ryan is the Arthur Daley of the government, and I wouldn't buy a car off Arthur Daley."
Responding to the motion, County Manager Martin Riordan said: "Councillor Harrington has identified a fairly major economic driver for Cork. However, the concern is that a Dublin centered view might predominate."
He continued: "If we are to attract new business in the future we have to ensure that we – at the least - have the same cost base. Companies like Google, and Facebook, they want huge broadband [capacity] and they won't consider going to an area where they don't have cost effective broadband."
- TRISH O'DEA
