Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 15 September 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Business of Joint Committee
Update on National Broadband Plan: National Broadband Ireland

Photo of Steven MatthewsSteven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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I thank the broadband team for their attendance. Deputy Cathal Crowe referred earlier to the time the witnesses gave to members to travel around our various constituencies to look at the installation on the ground. We got a sense at first hand of some of the difficulties the team is encountering, such as collapsed ducts, networks legacy issues, knowledge of where these ducts go and all the other stuff that goes with it. This was quite helpful. I was also pretty impressed with the standard of installation. Many years ago, I did a bit of work on fibre when it first came in. I, therefore, kind of understand the complexity of that project that the team has taken on, as well as the complexity of the cable installation, management, all the other issues and bespoke situations in which they will end up and all the other factors that can complicate an installation like that.

I will follow up on Deputy Lowry. The witness spoke about capacity release, where people have signed up and where the connection may be releasing capacity on other networks. Does he have feedback from people? People often say to me: "I should be getting 30 Mbps here but I am only getting 5 Mbps, yet I am outside the NBI so what can I do?" Is it those people for whom we are seeing some capacity release?