Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the contributors for their guidance and help. I do not want to get into the technical aspects of this. We all have a reasonable understanding about this, but we depend on experts to guide us. What I wanted from this endeavour was an understanding as to whether there is a solution that could fill the gap between now and year seven, and I suspect it will be longer. When I was the Fianna Fáil Opposition spokesman, I was very critical of this contract. I saw the scale of the ambition as being, perhaps, too great. While we all want fibre to the home, it is creating some problems in terms of its roll-out and delivery. However, fingers crossed, NBI has the contract. I opposed that at the time. I believed it was a job for the ESB or a body with the type of presence on the ground that could take on such a project. The fact that the ESB and Eir pulled out of the contract said a great deal.

That is all history. We are now left with a situation where many homes and premises are in contact with all of us each day, and I dealt with two this morning, wondering how they can get the service. The intervention of the contributors today is helpful in that it provides us with the information that there is a mix of technologies available. Some will work in some locations and some will not, but there is a mix that will probably get to that 530,000 to 540,000 premises. Again, not all those premises necessarily want broadband, but there is consistently a group that does. What I want to understand is where we move from here or how we can plot a course. I will recommend to the committee that we invite officials from the Department, based on the evidence the witnesses have provided. We then have to fashion a response from the committee's point of view on how to pull the information the witnesses have given us together to design some type of further intervention by the State.

I like the idea Mr. Campbell discussed regarding a voucher or some type of subvention. There might be some issues with that which we have to tease out as well. What we do not want is somebody getting a voucher to try a satellite or a fixed wireless solution that does not work for him or her, and the person being no further on. We would have to find some way around that. It is clear from the questions, however, that have been answered, and the witnesses have gone through all the questions so there is no point repeating them, that there are solutions available and that is important. At a minimum, any solution would have to provide for Zoom. When Deputy Ó Murchú and I started talking about this some time ago, I do not know about the Deputy but I certainly had not heard about Zoom to the same extent. Unfortunately, we have come to live with it now. Those are the things that are very important. I am very interested in the new satellite technology. It sounds really good. The latency was always going to be a problem. If that can be eliminated, one is right in the ballpark.

The sum of €100 per month with a €500 installation fee might be a little pricey. The installation fee would not be the problem. Many of the people I talk to would happily pony up €500 to get the kit in, but the €100 per month might be a problem. With flexibility now and people working from home and not having to commute, there is potential to offset the cost of the commute against the cost of a service like that. Where €100 might have been prohibitive at one stage, people are spending more than that driving to and from work. There is an exciting dynamic and there is an opportunity. I thank the witnesses for their presentations and their assistance. Chairman, our job now is perhaps greater than we thought. Quite frankly, there are opportunities on which we have to engage with the Department, and we will work on that.