Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for her questions. She quite rightly pointed out that we are covering 96% of the State. One can see in terms of a public infrastructure project the scale of what we are trying to do, and do it as quickly as possible for the benefit of everyone.

As the Senator quite rightly pointed out, there are four municipal districts, on average, in every local authority area. There is huge scale. That also provides extra assurance because each municipal district knows the geographical area under its jurisdiction well. That provides assurance, as referenced by other members, in terms of protected structures and any safeguards to the public good. We need to ensure that nothing is compromised through this process. We also want to be aware of unintended consequences in that regard. Each of the 31 local authorities has a broadband officer, as the Senator is aware. Each application will be subject to all of the data from NBI in terms of mapping procedures, and that will be available to local authorities.

On questions from citizens, local authorities are the closest arm of Government to our citizens and provide more than 600 services. The broadband officer is there to assist in any specific applications from the customer's perspective or the interaction with the mapping tool on the website, which is very advanced. One of the common frustrations I hear from people is the length of time they are waiting in terms of being on the map. This is one of the tools in our suite of armoury to try to get that process to the front door as quickly as possible.