Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Department has said the national broadband plan is 12 months behind schedule. Eight and a half of those months have been attributed to Covid, which is strange when one considers that works were permissible throughout the Covid period. The correspondence does not indicate whether a sanction has been applied to date regarding the other three and a half months' delay, which the Department accepts is not Covid related. It seems the Department is stating if remedial targets are hit it will not impose a sanction. I request that we seek clarification on whether any penalties have been applied. The target was that 60,000 homes would be passed by the end of 2021. In January, the figure was only 34,000. The most up-to-date figure I have is from mid-June, when 56,600 premises had been passed. This means as of the summer we have not even met the targets set down for the end of last year. It would be useful if we were to receive an update on the current milestones, particularly the number of premises that have been passed to date, and get an update on whether sanctions have been applied.