Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It would be helpful if that could be dealt with. I do not know whether it is a common theme that has arisen but it is certainly a theme in Wicklow. There is a great deal of anticipation and excitement about getting broadband, but when people look at the map and see their area is missing from it, there is considerable disappointment. Will that be addressed?

Our guests spoke earlier about building out the ring of the main fibre backbone. Presumably, that will be all underground-ducted to various nodes. For that last bit, where a number of houses may have to be served, is it proposed to underground-duct that service, or is it proposed to use the existing poles network that may exist, whether ESB networks or the old Department of Posts and Telegraphs poles? When fibre is put on a pole across open countryside, does that leave it more susceptible to storm damage than if it were underground-ducted? Following storms, large parts of rural Ireland are commonly left without power. My view is that the cause of much of that is that an overhead wire fell out and, obviously, overhead wires are more susceptible to storm damage. When there are power outages, people will become more dependent on their fibre, provided they have power to use the device.

In Bray, the most urban part of Wicklow, when fibre was being rolled out by fibre providers to a terrace or string of houses, the owner of one house might not give access to allow the fibre to go across the face of that house to the next house. In some cases, fibre was rolled out to two or three houses but the last two houses could not have it because a third party had said it could not go across their property. Has that issue been addressed or can our guests see a way around it if it arises?