Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection
Roll-out and Delivery of Broadband in Rural Areas: Discussion
Mr. Fergal Mulligan:
I will address the Deputy’s questions on the islands and then pass over to my colleague. Owing to a delay of eight and a half months due to Covid, we went back to NBI at the start of the year to see what we could do to get the islands done faster. I am glad to say that we have come to an arrangement under which NBI has brought forward many of them. My colleague, Mr. Brown, will provide a rundown of the seven islands we have brought forward. There are 27 islands. Mr. Brown can give a rundown of exactly what is being served by a point-to-point connection and what is being served by fibre. The majority are served by point-to-point connections with the mainland. That has been the result of the exercise. We have specific timelines for when those people can order broadband. I will let Mr. Brown run the Deputy through those. We only agreed and contractualised the arrangement with NBI in the past month or two. We will now roll out a programme to tell the islanders the dates on which the service will be ready. To address the Deputy’s previous point, is it 2025-----
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