Rooney, the former Football Association of Ireland president and Baltimore boss, recently launched a broadband initiative for his daughter's company in O'Hanlon's political base of Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, which he says he did as a "favour" to the TD.

"Rory O'Hanlon asked us if we could deliver quickly to the Monaghan area and so we went ahead with that phase of our project before South Tipperary, " he said.

Rooney is executive chairman of his daughter's company, Ice Broadband, which is introducing a wireless broadband scheme across the country.

O'Hanlon's ability to put him in touch with community leaders to sign up customers was part of the thinking behind the deal. It was also a winner for the politician, who could take some credit for setting up his constituents with much-needed broadband. Monaghan is one of the counties with the lowest broadband penetration at just 10.2%.

"It was because of Rory that it happened like that. He was also able to put us in touch with community groups who could give us a number of customers who are looking for it straight away.

Many people have no faith in broadband because of the false promises that were made in the past and are still waiting for high-quality broadband. We are hoping to give them that, " Rooney said.

Ice grew out of Rooney's daughter Yvonne's college project. Rooney says 10m has been invested in it to date.