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

What I read in the media is not what I am hearing from Mr. Hendrick. The media reports stated that a UK contractor accounted for 60% of the work and that it was extremely constrained by the impact of Covid-19. What I am hearing today is that the work of the contractor from the UK, Kelly Communications, was taken up by KN Networks. NBI then had two contractors in place, with KN Networks doing 60% of the work and Secto Services undertaking the remaining 40% of the roll-out.

I will ask a hard question. It is not correct to say in that context that the impact on the UK contractor was the reason for the delay in the roll-out. NBI had the contractors in place to take up the slack that arose because Kelly Communications could not carry out its allocated work. I ask Mr. Hendrick to comment on that aspect. I also ask him to tell us when NBI will catch up on its specified targets for the roll-out. Has the Department contacted NBI regarding whether penalties will apply because of the delay in fulfilling its contract? I am interested in finding out when NBI envisages that it will meet its targets. It has a seven-year plan for this project. When will that be published? Is it possible that the time required for this programme can be reduced from those seven years?

I was contacted by person who lives in Limerick, only a short distance outside Lisnagry, which is an intervention area. People there have received an update from NBI stating that the earliest possible date for connections in the context of this roll-out will be between January 2025 and December 2026. Those people are probably looking over their ditches at the existing fibre cable of another operator, yet they are being told that it will take three to four more years to be connected to broadband. Work has been done on the cap intervention areas and on the pilot programme. I will let my colleagues pick up on those aspects.

I want to drill down into the reasons that explain why NBI has achieved only 50% of its target for this roll-out. This is not about a contractor from the UK not being able to do work here. There must be some other reason to explain this situation and I would like to know what it is. I also wish to know when NBI will catch up on the targets set down in its contract. What is the target for the completion of work by the end of 2022? In addition, when will NBI publish its plan regarding its envisaged seven-year programme of work? Can the time required for the completion of the work be reduced? Moreover, there appears to be a low rate of take-up in respect of the line that the NBI has laid to date and the witnesses might confirm whether this is the case.

Media are calculating it is of the order of about 14%. Will you deal with those very quickly? I will let my colleagues pick up on other points and areas that I have not covered.