Ms Carolan Lennon:

I will answer the Senator's question on 5G first in terms of where we are.

We have just over 45% population coverage and 111 towns with the largest 5G network in the country. That is part of our plan. We will continue to push out 5G. Our big roll-out is as much about upgrading all the 4G equipment because that will get to 99% geographical coverage, which everyone should be benefit from. Potentially it is a source to work from home with until national broadband arrives everywhere.

On the future of telecommunications, there has been a lot of investment in infrastructure in Ireland over the past five years, driven largely by ourselves. When we finish our national build and NBI has done its rural build, Ireland will be in the top five in Europe in access to fibre. It is future-proofed because it is fibre directly into homes. There are services that none of us have thought of today that we will be able to take advantage of with direct fibre cable.