Labour leader Eamon Gilmore has criticised Fianna Fáil’s handling of broadband infrastructure during its years in government.
"If anything comes even remotely close to Fianna Fáil's disastrous handling of the banks it is their failure on broadband," Mr Gilmore said today.
"To have governed a country over a period when there was economic growth, to have taken over the Irish economy in 1997 from Ruairi Quinn, at a time when we were creating 1,000 jobs per week, when our public finances were back in the black, when the Irish economy was growing, and not to have done what was needed on broadband, is an absolute shame," he added.
Ireland was now 22nd out the 30 countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in terms of broadband access.
Launching a document, Labour's Plan for Digital Ireland, Mr Gilmore said his party's policy on broadband was an example of Government helping the private sector but not replacing it.
"In government, we will transform this country as far as broadband access is concerned. We will drive ahead with the provision of next-generation broadband."
A new company called NetCo would be set up, which would be "essentially a private-sector solution to the delivery of broadband in Ireland".
Labour communications spokeswoman Liz McManus said: "There is a big challenge ahead of us, it is called next-generation broadband."
She said it was "quite extraordinary" that a chief information officer had not yet been appointed. "That officer needs to be in place from very early on in the next government."
Ireland South MEP and Labour candidate in Tipperary North, Alan Kelly, said that as a former e-business manager, he was well aware of the difficulties with broadband access and he said the lack of progress in this respect was "a shame on this government".
Mr Gilmore said that, since Eamon Ryan of the Green Party was minister for communications from June 2007, "they will obviously have to share a proportion of the blame".
Main points of Labour's Plan for Digital Ireland:
1) Promote the establishment of NetCo, a new private company to begin the roll-out of next-generation broadband.
2) Develop a broadband rating system for every property being sold or rented.
3) Appoint a chief information officer to encourage cloud computing and e-government
4) Make a digital single market one of Ireland’s priorities in its European agenda
5) Encourage investment in next-generation broadband by facilitating the appropriate regulatory culture.