The company, formerly known as Esat BT, was rebranded as BT Ireland last year and announced at the time that it planned to spend 100m rolling out new technology to extend high-speed internet services to Irish customers. "We said at the rebranding that we would invest 100m over three years. We've probably invested not even a tenth of that, " McLaughlin said.

BT has held back investment in its own network and technology, he said, because of delays in gaining access to the telecoms infrastructure controlled by Eircom.

"I'm going to come out of the year not spending my capital budget which is not good. It means I'll have to rebid for the capital."McLaughlin warned that while Ireland is still seen as an attractive market for BT Group the company will look to deploy the capital elsewhere if it can't get its consumer broadband and telephone services up-and-running through Eircom exchanges.

"There will come a time where credibility will be an issue, " he said.

BT Ireland is seeking access to the local loop, the copper wire leading from local telephone exchanges controlled by Eircom to households around the country. That would enable it to directly access customers and offer its own broadband internet services to its 30,000 customers.

Like other alternative telecoms providers, BT has experienced delays in accessing exchanges and switching customers away from Eircom's network, a process known as local loop unbundling (LLU).

Despite pressure from the communications regulator Comreg to step up the pace of LLU Eircom announced last October that it would take 18 months to put systems in place to allow customers to retain their telephone numbers when switching to an alternative provider.

While its strategy for the consumer market is effectively on ice, McLaughlin said BT is exploring other opportunities in Ireland. The company is preparing to bid for three lucrative government contracts, including a 100m tender to build a digital radio network for the Garda and the emergency services.