Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses and Mr. Hendrick for his opening statement. I read it last night. I am not a technophobe but it was a jargon-filled statement, if he does not mind me saying so. I think I got my head around most of it.

I was the chair of the Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly in 2014. I remember chairing a meeting of 53 councillors from Fingal across to Clare and down to Kerry and Cork. It included basically half the country or more in population terms. It struck me at that meeting, which took place more than seven years ago, that half of the councillors in the room, including those from Dublin and Cork city councils, Fingal County Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, pretty much said nothing, while councillors in the other half of the room were totally frustrated. Alex White was the Minister at the time. We were promised at that stage that everything would be delivered. I appreciate that was before Granahan McCourt and National Broadband Ireland were involved but it has been a very long wait for a lot of people. As a Senator living in Dublin who represents people from across the country, and who has four grandparents from the country, I appreciate that broadband is as important as electricity and running water. That was the case even before Covid but it is more so now because broadband allows people work in their communities without having to travel and spend hours in traffic on motorways and so on.

I have looked at NBI's website and read Mr. Hendrick's statement. There is a lot in it and, to be fair, the website is quite detailed. NBI is saying the intervention area covers 96% of the land mass but only 23% of the population. Does that mean the 77% of premises in the country not covered are all based in the 4% of the land mass that is not in the intervention area?

Of the total 544,000 premises, 23,000 have been delivered. The roll-out will be for the seven years from 2019 to 2026. At this stage, after two years, less than 5% of the premises have been delivered. I appreciate there is front-loading of surveying and so on. How realistic is achieving the figure of 60,000 by Christmas? By the end of 2021 and 2021, how far will NBI be? There is an enormous amount of frustration. I hear of people who have to drive with their laptop to park in hotel car parks to pick up a Wi-Fi signal. I appreciate the connection points are good but it has taken so long for many people. It is not acceptable from the point of view of the State and members of the public that the roll-out is at this stage. Will Mr. Hendrick address those points first as I am conscious time is short?