Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Fitzmaurice asked about TEN-T. The Atlantic economic corridor task force met with officials from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and I sat down and discussed TEN-T and the Atlantic area. Following on from that, we had a presentation from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport at a task force meeting. Following on from that, a letter was crafted in consultation with our Department and sent to the Commissioner asking him to take on a review of the TEN-T process. The letter cited the reasons for it, including the fact that the Atlantic economic corridor region needs to be included in TEN-T. There will be an early review of the TEN-T process. It has been brought forward by two years so it is with the Commission. The process has begun. I want to put on record that the letter from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport was fully supportive of the reconfiguration of the maps to make sure the west of Ireland and all the infrastructural projects would be included in that. I compliment the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and his officials on their co-operation in getting that done. It was a long time coming. It took time to get there but there is a better understanding because of the collaboration on that issue between the Atlantic economic corridor task force and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

I concur wholeheartedly with the argument that broadband is essential. In 2019, rural broadband and regional economic development received an allocation of €2.4 million. This provided funding of €42,000 to each local authority to support broadband officers, which is a total figure of €1.3 million. The role of broadband officers is to facilitate the telecommunications industry to roll out infrastructure to make sure we remove barriers and black spots for mobile phone and broadband coverage. Some very exciting things have been done in Mayo where the broadband officer has created an app that has mapped all the existing duct work or pipes in the ground so that if any telecommunications company wants to provide a service to any town or village, it knows what is in the ground and where to find it. That app will be rolled out to every local authority where the broadband officers will take that on board. TII has retrofitted about €12 million worth of duct work into the motorways to make sure we are prepared for anything that might happen in the future. We are doing great work there. The broadband officers are also a very good information point for issues such as broadband being beside a house and it not being possible to get access to it. The broadband officers will find out what is available through the telecommunications companies and if it is not available, how long someone must wait for the intervention. A person will get a factual answer rather than a fuzzy one and will be told about the companies that have availability within that area. I reiterate what the Minister said about broadband and the 1.1 million people in this country - 25% of our population - who do not have access to high-speed broadband. The national broadband plan is essential. It is not a discussion; it is something we will be doing. The final due diligence is being done. The maps closed on 30 September for any private company that wanted to say that it could provide additional broadband. That map has been sweated and the results of that will be sent to the European Commission, which must approve the final sign off of the contract. We are working towards getting that done as quickly as possible. Given the level of investment, it is important that we do it right and make sure we have all our i's dotted and t's crossed to make sure we protect public money and customers so that they will have high-speed broadband for the next 35 years without any slowdown or diminution of the service in ten, 15 or 20 years time. That is the important part.