Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 25 November 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Broadband Connectivity and Telecommunications Issues: Eir

Photo of Michael LowryMichael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

What Ms Lennon is effectively saying is that Eir has neglected those areas, NBI has since come in and Eir has moved on and has a new project so it is completely forgetting about those areas. We are pointing out blatant omissions that were made. I have a business that involves installation and maintenance and I cannot understand how Eir cannot delegate a crew within its organisation. It is a large organisation with a huge workforce. It is not as if it must go back and plan, do surveys and carry out preparatory work. The work has been done. It is literally cables from one corner of the room to the other corner and these areas in the middle do not have access. They will be waiting for years for NBI to get to them. If Eir made a decision to provide resources to do this, it could fill in many of these gaps without any big outlay on its part and would give a service to the people who have been deprived of one and, as a result, have been disadvantaged in their business and social lives and every other aspect of their lives. When NBI representatives appeared, they said NBI would co-operate with Eir and facilitate whatever wishes Eir had in terms of a programme to fill in these gaps. Will Ms Lennon give us an assurance that Eir will at least examine the possibility of filling in these black spots? That is what we are really asking.

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