Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in this morning and for their time. First, targets are important, of course, and particularly important where, obviously, in an awful lot of cases, people are very much waiting to access broadband which is, in many cases, badly needed in their homes. I understand the initial target for the end of this year was 115,000 premises. According to the opening statement, Mr. Ó hÓbáin cited 27,000 premises as being ready for order or preorder and said the Department aims to get to 60,000 by the end of the year. That is my read on it. That is, therefore, more than 30,000 in the next two and a half months. Can Mr. Ó hÓbáin confirm that with regard to the target?

Regarding next year's target, can Mr. Ó hÓbáin detail what the initial target was and what the target now is for next year? With regard to any kind of catch-up programme, might Mr. Ó hÓbáin be able to tell the committee what is needed with regard to the ability to catch up? He might perhaps speak to us about staff. I note in the opening statement that Mr. Ó hÓbáin mentioned 270 staff are directly employed. Had he an initial figure as regards numbers the Department would like to recruit? I know it has more than 900 employed as contractors but 270 staff does not really seem like a lot to be directly employed. Could he comment on that?

County Galway was one of a number of counties that Mr. Ó hÓbáin referenced. It was going to be the starter as regards build. If Mr. Ó hÓbáin cannot respond to this today that is fine but he might come back to me with a response Have there been specific issues regarding County Galway? In the last couple of weeks, I have been contacted by a number of constituents from Ahascragh, which is a village outside Ballinasloe. They were of the view that Ahascragh was going to be able to access this broadband now or in the very near future. It was listed on a number of press releases at the time and the main street there does not seem to be getting any access at all. Was there any particular challenge with regard to County Galway or have issues come up there?

Eleven marts are to be connected and are in line for a BCP, which is really welcome. On the best of days, it can be hard to sell cattle in person never mind online. There have been huge issues. Mr. Ó hÓbáin might be able to tell us where those 11 marts are located.

I believe Mr. Ó hÓbáin said there are penalties for milestones missed. If NBI and the Department meet and milestone targets are being revised downwards, however, and the milestones are being brought down like they were this year and I assume will be for next year, how will that work with regard to penalties?

Finally, this seems to be an issue across my constituency in both counties Roscommon and Galway. Again, I do not expect Mr. Ó hÓbáin to have this detail today but it is just an example because it seems to be happening in many areas. One of my constituents lives in a village called Castleplunket just outside Castlerea. One side is the Roscommon side, which is served by NBI, and the other is Castlerea. He had signed up to the quarterly emails and was told that he could preorder between August and October of this year. He was delighted. He then got his next quarterly email and was told that his address was back to survey status and that he would not be able to order or preorder until between January and December 2023. Therefore, one side of his house - the Roscommon side - is being done at the moment and the Castlerea side is not. He is caught in the middle. How many times has it happened that someone was told his or her area was in build stage and that he or she would to be able to order in 2021, and that person then received an email to say it will actually be two years later? Can Mr. Ó hÓbáin roughly speak to that?