Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is an Act, not a regulation. It is to be transposed. The deadline for transposition is November 2025. It should provide for that.

About 81% of the country now has access to either fibre broadband or high-speed cable Internet. Only about 19% of people do not have that. That covers everybody in Ireland, both urban and rural. As that number reduces, the 10,000 a month, the political pressure for the people left at the end will increase. So, if only 5% in Ireland cannot get fibre broadband or high-speed cable Internet, they will feel disadvantaged compared with their neighbours. They will find they cannot do their video calls, work from home or whatever. That will create additional pressure for this problem to be solved. As stated earlier, the problem is far smaller than that with the national broadband plan - it is a much smaller number of homes. It is up about a quarter of the number of homes, and it will take a fraction of the cost to resolve. It is something that we can do and that I would like to see happen. At the same time as the rural areas are completed, I would like to see the urban areas completed.