Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Our guests are very welcome. I managed to listen to some of the presentations when I was in my office. The hubs are the key practical action that can be taken. That needs to be done now because in five years time we may not have half the demand for them. I had hoped we would have ubiquitous fibre broadband connected to every building in this country. I have to put my cards on the table and say I will not rest easy until we have put fibre broadband into every building in this country. If we were able to put in electricity, water and all those basic services, fibre broadband should be seen the same way. I do not believe that fibre technology will date. There will be better wireless technologies but they will never match fibre technology in fixed locations. It is a tiny bit of a cable that provides the necessary in terms of television, business and so on.

My understanding of the co-working hubs is that they currently have two functions. First, they provide broadband connection where none is available. For example, where I live, 100 houses have a fibre broadband connection and 300 houses are without broadband. Approximately 20 of us have a 60 Mbps or 70 Mbps service and the rest are on 5 Mbps or nothing. The people who are outside that have a big problem. I live in a very rural area with 100 houses. If a business is directly linked, it will not use a hub. It will use it in situ.

However, even if the national broadband plan contract is awarded next month, I would imagine that it would be three, four or five years before it is rolled out fully. Eir has not stuck to its targets regarding the roll-out of the previous one. It will be well into the middle of the year before the 300,000 houses are connected. We are now getting into more difficult terrain involving a further 500,000 houses. One can figure out the timescale. The first need is what I have outlined.

There is a socialisation issue regarding the second need. In other words, some people could work from home but they like to be able to go into work and interact with others. What I imagine will happen is that if everybody had fibre broadband in the home - and every Deputy works from wherever he or she is located at any given moment - most people will not just work neat eight-hour days. I imagine that they would sometimes go down and work in the hub while much of the time, they will work from home. They will work from places such as airports at other times. We need to look at the matter in that context. Therefore, the need for the hubs will continue but it will change and it might not be for as many hours.

I compliment Údarás an Gaeltachta, which is missing from this particular feast, because it has many buildings around the Gaeltacht, it systematically looks at empty buildings and it puts in gcomms or hot desks. This policy has proven very positive. Listening to our guests from Enterprise Ireland, an issue I can never get my head around is that when IDA Ireland was split up into Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, all of the buildings in rural Ireland were left in the ownership of the latter. So, from a foreign direct investment perspective, IDA Ireland owns properties in Roundstone in County Galway and all sorts of bizarre places. It seems that there is no co-ordinated approach regarding the full portfolio of IDA Ireland properties. How many buildings are there, how many of them are in full use and how many of them could be translated into gcomms just as Údarás na Gaeltachta has done? My question to the representatives from Enterprise Ireland concerns whether the agency has discussed this matter with IDA Ireland and asked the latter is willing to make its buildings, or parts of them, available. A factory located in the area in which I live includes a self-contained unit that has a few rooms, a place for making tea and toilets. A person can go in the front door and need not interfere with the rest of the factory building that, unfortunately, is empty at the moment but would still be available for letting. If IDA Ireland has factories, most of them have suites of offices that could be used. My simple question concerns whether there has been any joined-up thinking here between Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. I will extend the question.