Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, where the trunking is in place. That only came into place in the mid-1990s, when it became compulsory under building regulations to put in trunking so that cables could be fed into the houses. Houses that are a little older than that do not have it. In order to go into a housing estate where the houses do not have that trunking, it is necessary to dig up the garden and the footpath to get into the house with it. The providers do not do that. A town may have ten housing estates and some of the older ones, which are often local authority houses, are left behind and get no service. That is an issue. Some of the providers say they will come back and install it, but it is a major problem for those areas. On the map, it looks like they are covered. That individual is left without a service, however, or perhaps hundreds of individuals are left without a service in some cases. What powers does ComReg have? If a provider has taken on a contract to provide broadband to a particular area, does it have an obligation to provide it there or is it back then to the national broadband scheme?