Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Campbell. We move now to members' questions. The first slot is for Fine Gael, which I will take. I do not know if our guests have had the opportunity to look at our previous interactions, particularly with NBI but also with Eir. The issue of the intervention areas is coming up for us in constituencies, especially in rural ones but also in those with some urban areas. Mr. Campbell referenced it already. I want to take up that specific topic. Mr. Campbell suggested that satellite technology could offer something here. The one issue that has come up is that in terms of the current roll-out with NBI, there may be areas where people could be looking over a ditch and seeing where Eir has got to up to now and yet NBI may not come their way for two to five years. I will begin with Mr. Campbell and then go to Mr. Carvalho and Mr. Fitzpatrick to hear how they see this. We have raised the matter with NBI and it is looking at ways it can interact with Eir and others on those gap intervention areas. Technically, how good would it be with respect to speed capacities for end users? How long would it take to be up and running? What would be the cost? How would it compare with fibre broadband? This is a very specific question because one of the key reasons we have the witnesses in today is to address those gap intervention areas.