Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. Only by doing this will the feedback loop be created that provides the information to improve it. That is brilliant. I do not want to get into the mobile phone and broadband task force. That is meant to be retasked and re-engineered and it is probably sitting in the wrong Department. That needs to be sorted. That would allow it to be a clearing house for NBI and others to deal with issues that we sometimes deal with in this House. There is probably a more streamlined fashion than messages over and back across the convention centre.

It seems NBI welcomes this and I accept the next question I will ask does not necessarily fall into the Minister of State's bailiwick but the discussion on NBI has two parts. There was the delay in relation to Covid. There were meant to be 115,000 connections at the end of this year but, at the beginning of January, people recognised a difficulty and the number is, conservatively, between 50,000 and 70,000. NBI reckons it can deliver that but the Government does not want to make a promise that is not followed through on. My understanding is that in the first six months of next year, that will be caught up on. Beyond that, the big question is the acceleration plan. That plan is about what is meant to come in year six and seven falling into years four and five, which means Eir has to have the capacity alongside NBI and whoever else. I know contracts are being drawn up but has the Minister of State information on that? We all await this plan.

Another part which falls in the Government bailiwick is that the mobile phone and broadband task force and other elements of Government need to look at interim solutions for areas that will be waiting for three, four and five years in a best-case scenario. At the transport and communications committee we had the likes of Digiweb and Novatel and we had much discussion on the likes of Starling. Some of these may provide alternatives for these-----