Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The articulation of all of this for Deputies like me, who represent both urban and rural constituencies, is that we have villages and townlands that are being split down the middle. The only way I can articulate my point is by giving a practical example and that is the village of Ballyhooly, in north County Cork.

Typical of every small village throughout the country, it is quite literally being split down the middle in that part of it is to be provided with broadband through the national broadband plan and the other part is to be provided for by the market. In the case of Ballyhooly, there is a housing estate that quite literally is being split down the middle in this regard. While we accept that the market is providing and that there is an entity called NBI, as public representatives who spend a lot of our time advocating on issues such as access to broadband, particularly in the current climate of remote working, we find it hard to understand why there is not a greater degree of interoperability or connectivity between NBI and the private operators to solve problems and ensure provision of services to people in villages. It is extremely frustrating.

Can Mr. Hendrick provide any reassurance to public representatives like me that people in Ballyhooly and every village like it throughout the country who want to get connected and have a right to be connected will be guaranteed access, that they will not be denied access in the times we live in?