MORE THAN 65 per cent of houses were now connected to broadband, Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan told the Dáil.

He added that some 70 per cent of households now had a computer.

Insisting that the national broadband scheme was working, Mr Ryan said: “It is delivering services to areas week-by-week that would not otherwise have had coverage.”

The Minister added that his officials were in Brussels with the European Commission to work through an arrangement as to how further houses could be covered by way of European support, under the stimulus package, to ensure that every house would have access to broadband.

Fine Gael’s Noel Coonan said that the time for sermonising and high rhetoric had long since passed. He accused the Government of discriminating against rural Ireland, particularly the mid-west region.

Mr Coonan said that while he did not doubt the Minister’s personal commitment, the reality was that broadband was not freely available in rural Ireland.

“We want a definite timeframe for its delivery and commitment to do so by the Government and Minister,” he added.

Mr Ryan said that provision of broadband services was a priority for the Government.

He told Mr Coonan that his department had undertaken a number of initiatives to address its provision throughout the State.

The initiatives included the national broadband scheme, the metropolitan area networks programme and school programmes.

Mr Ryan said that some €80 million had been invested in the national broadband scheme.

“There are some 50 electoral districts in Tipperary, which are covered by the national broadband scheme, to make sure that we do have services that would not be provided by the market,” Mr Ryan added.