Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was not sure if Senator Ward was going to come in. I welcome the Minister of State. I am happy to support the regulations, particularly if they are a way to accelerate the roll-out of broadband.

I live in a rural area. More than half of the premises in County Roscommon are in the intervention area. That is absolutely incredible. It is the same in east Galway. I very much welcome any measures to accelerate the provision of broadband. There are more than 19,000 premises in Roscommon. The Minister of State mentioned section 254 and municipal districts. I have a significant concern about that. I acknowledge the work the Department has done to try to find a way to accelerate matters and streamline the administrative process. The Minister of State mentioned more than 900 licence applications alone and a further 900 applications for customer connections. Delays mean additional time that we do not have. For the past year, due to the Covid pandemic and lockdown, everything has had to be done online. Lack of broadband access reduces equality in regional areas in terms of attracting investment. We can even farm in such areas. When everything was online, there was a major impact. I want to acknowledge what the Department is doing.

In the context of the National Broadband Ireland, NBI, plan, who will be the liaison with each municipal district? This has probably already been decided and I am sure that a person has been person. Will there be a dedicated person to streamline this process and ensure we are supporting our municipal districts as much as possible and that NBI is also supporting them?