Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I have some questions on the national broadband plan. Back in June, in reply to a parliamentary question, it was stated that 4,000 homes out of the 115,000 originally targeted for this year were competed. On 15 September there were 23,000, according to the CEO of National Broadband Ireland. There are now 27,000. We have clarified this today. The target is 60,000 so there are 33,000 premises to be connected, or to be passed, between now and the end of the year. This would seem to be ambitious. I hope it happens. Similar to the previous speaker, I desperately want to see the broadband plan rolled out. Laois and Offaly are crying out for it. Many commuters go up and down the M7 every day who could be working from home. They need to be working from home for a number of reasons, such as to get away from long commutes and to decrease their carbon emissions.

At present, 60,000 is the target. It looks like we will come in at roughly half of what the original target was. There was a period of time that the company could not work because of Covid. I contest this because telecommunications was one of the areas that was exempt. The real reason was that many of the operatives and subcontractors involved were from another country. They were from overseas and had to travel into the country. I would like a brief answer. Is this not the real reason it was held up for so long at the start of the year?