Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a few issues. The first concerns an email that came in the other day from a company in Ennis. The VAT reduction rate announced on 1 September has not been passed on to them and what they have seen in their bills since September is that the tariff has gone up and the VAT has come down. Basically, they are paying the exact same bill so they have adjusted their tariff and reduced the VAT. That is immoral. That VAT reduction was brought about just across from us in the Dáil a few short weeks ago to alleviate pressures felt by individuals and companies during this time of economic ravage brought on by Covid-19. It is immoral that Eir continues to do that. It is wrong that it has adjusted tariffs without any communication with its customer base, as far as I can see. It has adjusted it so that one is paying the same at the end of the month. The same amount leaves one's bank account. That is wrong. I would like to hear the witnesses' views on that.

Second, as others were speaking I was going through the mobile phone coverage map of the nation, which has various colour codings signalling areas with good and bad coverage and no coverage in some cases. It is broken down by company. I made the point at our previous meeting that in some parts of County Clare there is a proliferation of mobile phone masts. There could be ten or 12 in a small community and companies apply to extend these 6 m masts to 12 m and they sell space very lucratively to competitors. In the rural parts of the county there is no coverage. If someone goes off to work they are entirely uncontactable to family and whoever else might need to reach them if they go to western or northern parts of the county. That is wrong. The companies are not fulfilling their full obligations. This does not come down to 4G, 5G and that crazy debate that happens online and at the fringes of society. It is not about that; it is about some populated communities being overloaded with infrastructure when they already have super coverage and other communities being cast aside.

The final issue I want to raise is that of eircodes. I believe that issue is not fully within the ComReg's remit but, nonetheless, eircodes are a prerequisite for homeowners in Ireland to get connected to the Internet. There is something fundamentally flawed in that. We have debated in this committee the situation where they generate eircodes on a quarterly basis. If one does not get taken into that net of eircode generation one is cast aside for a few months and left without broadband at a time when it is crucial that people are enabled to work from home.