Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. They do not need me to tell them the importance of broadband to the rural areas of this country and the areas that are not covered. This has been brought into even sharper focus by the pandemic. People who might have liked to have had high-speed broadband now absolutely need it, and those who absolutely need it are in absolute distress because of the impact it is having on their lives. The witnesses are well aware of this so there is no news there.

The only question anyone who wants broadband has to ask is when they are getting it. It can be done by postcode, address or whatever flagging mechanism National Broadband Ireland wants but it is absolutely incumbent on NBI to produce a database of facts at the earliest opportunity. The company should give its best guesstimate. It is a year in operation, albeit with all of the constraints of Covid, and I accept this absolutely, but it has done 25% of the survey with 132,000 homes surveyed and 92,000 premises with design, and it is working on the network build for 19,500. In terms of an initial sampling exercise, this should provide the company with the raw data it can use to extrapolate a master plan for installation. Of course there will be issues and concerns but a resident in County Clare only wants to know when. As others have said, there is nothing on the website that is in any way helpful in guiding this.

It is expected the programme will be fully delivered within seven years. I could say to people on the phone that it will delivered in between five and seven years. These people are planning their lives. A lot happens in a year or even six months. This will dictate whether people return to build, purchase or get a job in a particular area. It is part of their life planning. Some people will decide to move, quite frankly, because of the changes that have been brought about by Covid.

I accept there is always the hazard when projecting when something might be done that it will not be done in that timeline, and I have no doubt that if National Broadband Ireland sets a date, Mr. Malone, who I see is smiling, will respond that I would be the first to hold him to that target if he missed it. It is better to set it out and give the best guesstimate. National Broadband Ireland has the contract now and it does not have to big up any more. It is now getting on with it and I, more than anyone else, wish it well in making that happen. It has a job of work to do for citizens. This will impact on its business because it has the contract and needs to get the plan rolled out whenever it can. I know its targets with regard to key performance indicators but there is also a requirement that the people who will get the service know whether they will get it in year one, two, three, four, five, six or seven. I have found in my role as a public representative over 18 years that when I get back to people, even if it is not with good news, that knowledge - in this case, a best guesstimate - allows them to plan.

If things get better, it is fair enough. If they get worse, it is a question of the degree. I appeal to NBI to put in whatever resources it can as early as possible in order to give people some certainty.

Other members referred to the gaps that exist. People find it impossible to understand why NBI cannot build out to three, four or five houses or a little estate that falls outside. Did I understand Mr. Hendrick to say that NBI is building the network out from the exchange, meaning that it will traverse the same ground that is already covered with existing fibre? Am I right that in those blue areas it will not splice into the end of that but will go all the way back to the exchange and string fibre on poles and through ducts alongside existing fibre?