Failures over Ireland's broadband provision has led to the country's roll-out lagging behind Ethiopia and could have dire economic consequences in the future, the Labour Party claimed today.
Labour spokesman on communications Tommy Broughan hit back at comments made at the Fianna Fail parliamentary party meeting by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern that Fine Gael and the Labour Party would drag Ireland back into the Third World.
Mr Broughan described the Taoiseach's comments as ill-advised considering Ireland had fallen behind most European countries and a number of African nations in terms of broadband provision in the past few years.
"Earlier this year New Scientist reported that Ethiopia has launched an ambitious plan to wire the whole country for broadband internet within three years.
"By next November the government in Addis Ababa expects to have up to 500,000 broadband connections to homes and businesses - a greatly superior roll-out to Ireland's," he said. "In the meantime, Ireland is set to drop-out of the top 30 countries for broadband provision."
Mr Broughan said the consequence of the Government's failure on broadband could be disastrous for both inward investment and attracting foreign businesses to Ireland.
"Nearly every target set by Government for broadband has not been met, as the vast majority of Irish internet users are forced to use antiquated modes of dial-up technology," he added.