Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Senator asked about the mobile telephone and broadband task force. I chair the task force. It is made up of representatives from telecommunications firms, local authorities, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and the Department of Rural and Community Development broadband officers. We have stakeholders, including the Office of Public Works, OPW, ESB Networks and all the utility providers. We also have ComReg.

ComReg has worked on the mobile telephones and black spots. We now have a live map. As a result of the task force work, ComReg has produced an online map that shows where the black spots are. We are encouraging those involved through the broadband officers in each local authority. We are engaging with the telecommunications companies to provide the infrastructure to ensure that we can eliminate these black spots.

Senator Conway-Walsh mentioned Castlebar. We are looking at whether there are public buildings or lands that we can use for the infrastructure rather than have the telecommunications companies acquire land in other ways.

I mentioned earlier it will be a shared service and every company will be able to look at the one mast. The ducting that TII is putting in will be leased out to the telecommunications companies and they will all use the same duct, so there will not be a demand for everyone to have a similar duct. That is happening.

Where there is an application for planning permission to put up a mast, there are local objections. Normally, if one holds a public meeting and asks everybody whether they have a mobile phone, they will say they have and they will complain about not having coverage, but, at the same time, they do not want a mast to be located in their area.

There are still some black spots. This is noticeable on the motorway between Tuam and Dublin and I have noticed it around Leixlip, so it is not confined to rural areas. The mobile phone and broadband task force is trying to marry all of the players and stakeholders to make sure they all understand what is going on, and ComReg is also involved. It is important that we try to eliminate the black spots. Where the Senator knows of a particular black spot, I suggest that she contacts the broadband officer, who will be able to tell her what plans there are to try to improve reception, which is part of their function.