Rabbitte criticises lack of action on broadband

MINISTER FOR Communications Pat Rabbitte said he did not have a “willing partner” in fellow Labour Minister Ruairí Quinn’s Department of Education when it came to high-speed broadband for schools.

Some schools were struggling with inadequate bandwidth, but “[the department of] education hasn’t yet come around to the notion that it should address the problem.

“We cannot continue with the situation where some, if not many, pupils have better connectivity at home than they do at school.”

Mr Rabbitte said his department was prepared to “do the rollout and supply” to schools and had a budget to do so, but talks were continuing with Mr Quinn’s department about its capability to meet ongoing current costs. He was addressing the Dáil communications committee last week.

“We’re willing and able and ready to go . . . but we don’t have a willing partner in Education. Education see themselves in greatly straitened times.”

The Department of Communications was not “responsible for what goes on behind the school gate”, Mr Rabbitte added. “As the system is structured, the Department of Education has one remit and we have another remit and the Department of Education, in fairness, is under acute pressure on a number of fronts, so we are continuing to talk to them about this.”

Mr Rabbitte a predicted it would take some years to bridge the adult “digital exclusion gap”.

Ireland needed to meet an EU target requiring a reduction in the proportion of adults who never used the internet to 15 per cent by 2015, he added.