Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment

National Broadband Plan: Discussion

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept that, but the Department will recognise the difficulty we have. As politicians, we are charged by the Taoiseach to consider alternatives, examine what the Department is doing and not rule out the plan the Department has in place, but without information it is difficult to make a value judgment. I am not calling into question Mr. Ó hÓbáin's judgment if we are all in this together in an attempt to address the critical element, which is the roll-out.

I examined some of the alternatives. In 2019, the Department considered three options. In 2018, it looked at six. The language here is absolute - to do something to 100% of the homes. Did anybody look at where the sweet spot is between timing and costs based on fibre and wireless in terms of trying to get it deployed as quickly as possible using as much fibre as possible, but not using all fibre? From my experience representing urban, suburban and rural parts of my constituency, there are people on the periphery who, if they were told they would get a fixed wireless option - I will not get into the technologies of wireless, whether 4G, 5G, 6G or 7G, or whether it is packet radio network or whatever - in three and a half years, would take the hand off whoever would offer that versus being told that they will now get fibre with all the facilities of our friends here so that they will be able to monitor their temperature, their health and their heartbeat in seven or eight years. A good number of them will be dead by then. Children who are starting secondary school in September next will be through university before that is deployed. There seems to have been this absolute position that there has to be fibre to the home in 100% of the cases with the exception of 1% or 2%. Did anybody look at bringing back the scale and ask, "What if we did it to 70% or 80%?"

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