Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I was very pleased to launch the first of the 300 broadband connection points which are the first phase of the scheme's delivery. The Deputy will be glad to hear that the launch was not as far away as County Louth but was up in the Glenasmole valley, County Dublin, which is as isolated as one finds. There is a local community centre there where the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and I were pleased to introduce these connection points. We are very keen to see an acceleration, wherever possible, of the national broadband scheme but it cannot compromise the delivery of quality or value for money. I think this is possible, primarily because one of the risks or uncertainties in the roll-out of the national broadband plan is the potential uptake. Covid and the acceleration of the digital revolution, with remote working and the use of Zoom and other technologies, give the national broadband company every incentive to try to accelerate its works. Covid did cause delays and create some difficulties. There were difficulties in one of the key contractors coming in from the UK, with the restrictions in place on travel, but that has by and large been caught up with. A lot of the work done to date has been rather detailed survey work, such as assessing which exact poles might be used, whether Eir poles, ESB poles or other systems, to get the fibre out to houses. We will start before the end of this year with fibre passing not just the broadband connection points, which are focused at community centres and other hubs, but also in Carrigaline, as I understand it, and Cavan. First will be the passing of houses and then it is hoped we will see what the level of uptake there is. It is up to the householder to avail of the services. There will be difficulties without doubt. One cannot engage in projects of this scale and complexity without difficulties. We are, as I said, literally covering the entire country and having to map out and plot out the exact route to get this fibre or a fast wireless connection into each house. It is to be hoped this can be accelerated.