Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is right that it can be very frustrating. Broadband is a lifeline for many people, businesses and communities. The purpose of this is to cover the whole country, particularly the hard-to-get-to areas. We will also have to focus on a number of urban areas. As the national broadband plan is being delivered, we will have to design mechanisms to ensure we get to some pockets of urban areas. We are going as fast as we can and this Supplementary Estimate will help us to go faster. It is working in every way. Like any big infrastructural project, this started with getting permission from local authorities, the trimming of trees and that sort of stuff and overcoming problems with ducting. The Covid-19 pandemic was the biggest problem because we could not get contractors in and out. The problems are all being overcome, which is a sign of real progress and success. We will roll out broadband as fast as we can. I absolutely accept what the Deputy said. For those still waiting, it is a long wait. This should be good news because it is accelerating delivery.

With regard to where the money is coming from, the Deputy is right that it comes from a variety of areas across the Department. The Department now has a €1 billion spend, which is almost double its allocation three years ago. Some areas are ahead and others are behind. In this instance, we are ahead on broadband and we are going to pay for it through a number of areas. I take the Deputy's point about the energy retrofit and transformation programme being equally important. I do not think the underspend in that area is a sign of a lack of progress. In truth, approximately one third of the €1 billion pot is being spent on the energy retrofit. It is demand-led. There have been some slight delays. The rolling out of some of the one-stop shops was slightly slower than we expected a year ago, but it is working. I met some of the providers at the weekend and they told me their order books are full. They are confident that will expand. We are ahead of the broadband targets and it is the same story with respect to retrofitting. We are doing more houses than we expected in the climate plan. The new low-cost loans that will kick in next February will help to make it viable for households to do the work. It is only going one way, which is further up.

The benefit we have in one way is that we know in the budget process that we will get increased revenue every year because the carbon tax revenue keeps coming in. That increase allows us to send a signal to industry and tell it to keep going and scale up because a bigger budget is coming each year.

The National Cyber Security Centre saw slightly reduced expenditure on the interim facility. We are moving to new headquarters in Beggar's Bush early next year. It was to happen in December but will probably happen in January. The centre will have a top, state-of-the-art and secure facility there. We had them in an interim facility near Thomas Street. With respect to the budget, there was a slightly lower cost for the fit-out than was originally expected. Any shortfall there is not materially affecting operations.