Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What really concerns people is the question of when their homes will get broadband. I realise it all revolves around Eircode postcodes. At a previous meeting of this committee, I highlighted that in most cases postcodes are generated only on a quarterly basis. Quite a number of people have come to my office stating they have missed the current quarter's capture. Therefore, some will not get a postcode until February. They cannot fully engage with the NBI's system and website because connecting a home to any network is very reliant on its having a postcode. We believe there is a disadvantage in that regard.

As others have said, there may be a blue connection at one end of a road and another cable half a mile down another road. There are many gaps. People despair when they see NBI staff drive away from a crossroads at which they have been working and not come back because they are going to another community. It is a matter of filling in the gaps. This is what people really want to know about. I would like to know about the Eircode postcodes specifically.

The delegates have has said NBI is doing quite a lot of work in Limerick. I have seen NBI vans in Cratloe, County Clare, not too far from my own home. We need to know a little more about where the infrastructure is going to be rolled out at county, townland and road levels. In Clare, there are a number of cables in the ground that NBI is not allowed to tap into. Perhaps the delegates could comment on this. Ballygirreen in Newmarket-on-Fergus strikes me as an example. The Irish Aviation Authority has its radio centre there to capture air traffic coming in from the Atlantic. At its own cost, the authority laid state-of-the-art cabling through fields with cattle and rushes. It is fabulous but it bypasses homes that desperately need it. In many cases, NBI is encountering cables that have been laid by airports, schools and Garda stations but which it cannot tap into. Perhaps the witnesses could cover some of those topics.