THE “father of the internet” says Ireland is adopting broadband communications far too slowly and has called for urgent government action to address the problem.

Vint Cerf, employed by Google as a globetrotting “internet evangelist”, says Irish people are not getting the full benefits of being online because of the lack of high-speed access.

His remarks will discomfit the Department of Communications because Google’s European headquarters is in Dublin, and the online search engine plans to create a further 600 jobs in the city as its expands over the next three years.

Google has leased a further 100,000 sq ft of office space on Barrow Street, while its human resources department has reportedly been swamped with thousands of applications from technology workers.

Cerf insists the country shouldn’t be “embarrassed” by his remarks, nor does Ireland’s backwardness about broadband put Google’s expansion in doubt. As one of the computer scientists credited with founding the internet, he says he is simply disappointed that Irish people are missing out on its benefits.

“Ireland is about 5% penetrated. The average in the EU is about 11%, so you are kind of halfway there,” he said.

“Ideally everyone should be able to access the internet at high speeds and that’s not the case now.”

Cerf, an award-winning co-developer of the internet and world-renowned expert on web-related technology, made his concerns known to Noel Dempsey, the communications minister, during a recent visit to Dublin.

“I had a chance to chat to Mr Dempsey and we talked about broadband everywhere,” Cerf said. “We compared Ireland to countries where it’s more available, like South Korea, Singapore and Japan, and I told him that I always worried about countries that don’t have a high penetration because it prevents people from getting the best from the web.”

A survey by O2, a mobile phone company, has found that more than half of Irish owner-managers and senior executives do not have broadband at home. According to the Central Statistics Office, only 16% of Irish households with internet access use broadband, compared to an EU average of 48%. The European Commission rates Ireland’s broadband penetration at 5.43%, compared with the best figures of 23.7% for the Netherlands and 22.5% for Denmark.

According to Cerf, the lack of broadband in Ireland does not affect the country’s attractiveness as a business location, but has an impact on the general population.

“You shouldn’t be embarrassed by this problem,” said Cerf. “Ireland has made a commitment to the information technology sector and it has really delivered on it. That is why Google is based there. You have well-educated people and good international connectivity to America and to the Continent.

“We live in an increasingly digital world. We take digital photographs all the time now, for example, and we want to share them with friends and family. High-speed internet access lets this happen more easily. Not having it available to everyone is not going to do instantaneous damage to the country, but it limits the way people can use the internet.”

Cerf’s comments have been supported by Damien Mulley, of Ireland Offline, a lobby group for internet users. The organisation is campaigning for cheaper and faster access for every household in the country.

“Cerf is right and I’m glad someone like him is helping to lobby the government on this,” said Mulley. “Use of the internet in Ireland is very low and one reason is that people can’t get good access at a fair price. One in four Irish people can’t get it, and where it is available, it’s very expensive.”

In figures produced by the OECD last November, Ireland came 24th out of 30 countries in the broadband subscription rating, with only 4.3 in every 100 inhabitabnts subscribing.

Dempsey last week defended the government’s performance, saying critics didn’t “recognise the real progress made in the broadband market in Ireland”. Cerf said the minister was “quite knowledgeable and very conscious of the importance of information technology”. But he believes the government should consider incentivising companies to increase the availablility of broadband.

The European commission last week gave Ireland the go-ahead to spend €170m to extend broadband into 90 towns using state-owned networks, but the move has been criticised by some private companies on the basis that it could undermine investment in the sector.

Cerf was awarded the US National Medal of Technology along with Rober E Kahn, in 1997. The award is referred to as the “Nobel prize of computer scientists”.

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