Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for joining us. This is something that annoys everybody, including me. I am sure it also annoys the delegates when they are driving around the country or trying to find coverage. As mentioned, representatives of ComReg and the Department for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources appeared before the committee a number of weeks ago. I explained to them that I had put up a comment on my Facebook page a few days previously asking people to tell me about black spots. I received quite a number of comments, but, unfortunately, some of those who replied did not specify whether they were talking about phone coverage, O2 or Vodafone; therefore, I decided to look at the figures to see what people in County Meath were paying specifically for phone coverage.

I know that the average phone bill is about €24 per month, which seems very low seeing as I use my phone a lot. However, if we take it that the figure is €280 per year, we are paying prices that are 40% higher than those in most European countries. Perhaps the delegates might explain the reason for this? There are over 5 million phones subscribed. We do not have a population of 5 million, which means that many people have two phones. There are 184,000 people living in County Meath. If one was to say 140,000 of these had phones, just under €40 million is going to mobile phone companies every year.

The comments that were relayed back to me a number of weeks ago would not show that this amount of funding is going into County Meath or where that funding is going, because the quality of signal is desperate. I explained that on leaving my house to go to work, if I turn left I cannot get telephone coverage for 15 minutes, if I turn right I cannot get telephone coverage for 15 minutes, and if I go behind my home onto a national road, I cannot get telephone coverage for 15 minutes. Where is this investment going? While there is talk of upgrading to fibre and to 3G or 4G, what about normal signal for people talking on the phone? The purpose of telephones is to be able to talk on them, and if this is to be jeopardised in order to improve data services, I note that after driving home last night I was not complaining that I was unable to download the latest series of "Family Guy" or something; I was complaining because I was unable to use my telephone. If the basic utility for which a telephone was actually created is to be jeopardised for all these purposes, what is the point? My question to the telephone companies is whether the focus of all the upgrading they are doing is specifically on data. If so, is there any way in which it can be pulled back to ensure that a proper, basic service is in place before we start to look for all the bells and whistles and everything else it is stated that people are seeking?

On the Internet and broadband, the national broadband plan obviously is welcome. I understand that companies cannot get everywhere and that there are quite rural parts of Ireland. While that is fine, for those areas in which companies such as Eircom state they will deliver, they should do so. I acknowledge the point was being made that Eircom, for example, has black spots in a particular area. However, to be specific, although people in Dunboyne have been receiving a service from Eircom for years, there is still a black spot comprising approximately five houses. I am dealing with a woman in one of them who could work from home if she could get telephone coverage, but she cannot. When one follows up on this issue, one is told one must wait for the broadband plan coming from the Government. If the Internet companies are in an area, they should be servicing that entire area and not simply leaving it to the Government. I seek a comment on this point.