Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is the opportunity to use our islands as pilot templates for challenges we have on the mainland in terms of ehealth. I was on Inishbofin approximately 20 years ago dealing with health issues out there as a member of the Western Health Board. There is an opportunity with the development of broadband to provide innovative new health tools and the islands are an ideal template to use for the development of such technology.

While there is an issue with housing on the islands, there is also a challenge with existing vacant properties. We all see that first-hand in our rural communities. The islands could be used as a template to look at overcoming this challenge and replicating that knowledge on the mainland. There is huge opportunity in the area of energy, and I will come back to that.

In relation to broadband, the comment was made that there is no obligation to bring a fibre-optic cable to the islands. Let me make it crystal clear that under the national broadband plan contract, the default is fibre to every home regardless of location. The contractor must justify why fibre is not being used in a particular scenario. The standard offering at the moment to every home is 500 Mbps, which means that whether people are on an island or the mainland, they have to get a minimum offering of 500 Mbps. That is absolute in the contract. It will be difficult to provide that without doing it through a fibre-based technology.

The offering being delivered to every home at the moment is 10 GB. Potentially, any home connected to the national broadband plan fibre cable today can, if they are willing to pay for it, get a 10 GB service. I would expect people on the islands to get the same opportunity to avail of that if they wished. That can only be provided through a fibre solution. We as a committee will hold the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to that commitment.

I will address my questions to Mr. Walsh on the area of energy. It is an issue close to my heart. When I was appointed Minister with responsibility for energy in 2016, one of the first challenges we had to deal with was the loss of electricity supply to Inis Oírr and Inis Meáin.

I was on Inis Oírr and saw first hand the challenges that were there and the generators that had to be brought in. As Minister, I insisted, against the advice, on Ireland being one of the signatories to the EU clean islands initiative. Thankfully, and Mr. Walsh and Ms Moran referenced it in their initial contributions, there is a great opportunity to develop this initiative with the support of the European Union. Will Mr. Walsh elaborate on what is happening on the islands with regard to this initiative? What type of technology is being used? What are the opportunities there for the other islands?

In this context it is also important when we look at electricity supply to our islands that we do not just look at the supply coming from the mainland out to the islands. With the development of our offshore renewable energy potential there will be a significant amount of supply coming from the islands back to the mainland. It is imperative that we look now at developing the cable network to our offshore islands that has the capacity to supply the mainland rather than, which was historically the case, only supplying the demand on the islands. I would appreciate it if Mr. Walsh could come back on this.