Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 27 January 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

National Broadband Plan Update: National Broadband Ireland

Mr. T.J. Malone:

Yes, the self-install system is basically so that we can carry out the Eir Make Ready work in the duct access network. That product is available in other jurisdictions. It is available in Ireland and was launched by Eir in Ireland in August of this year. For a project of this scale and size, however, the product that is there at the moment is not really fit for purpose for us. We can put our ducting in but if we encounter a problem or a duct blockage on the network, which on the main structure duct is an average of 8 or 8.5 blockages per kilometre, we cannot clear that. We must go back to Eir to clear and repair that blockage. Members can imagine the time it can take to stop the work, go back, clear it, get us back in, and so on.

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