Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh Mr. Ó hÓbáin, Mr. Neary, Mr. Mulligan, Mr. Ryan agus Dr. O'Connor. I have a number of questions. I will try to keep them brief. Some have been already answered. First, I support Deputy Kerrane's comments on the Ahascragh area. I accept that Mr. Ó hÓbáin cannot give us clear answers today but, as the Chairman will know, there is a famous hurling team in the area, Ahascragh Fohenagh. The Chairman and I have relations in that area and we had better look after them. The people I am talking about are actually not in the village. Approximately 15 residents living outside the village are affected. I will get more details for the witnesses. They have been campaigning for a number of years. They have absolutely no supply which is a real drawback for them. I would certainly like to see further clarification on that issue.

To return to the 60,000 homes that will be connected to the network by the end of the year, is it possible to indicate how many of these connections are in rural areas and how many are in urban areas? The witnesses have been asked about the agricultural marts. I accept that Mr. Neary will come back to us on where those particular marts are located. That is important. The witnesses used the phrase "timeframe changes" a number of times. Will that affect mainly rural areas? I am anxious to know that. Linked to that question, now that we have a number of hotspots set up by Government in parts of the country, will the areas where these are located be less of a priority for NBI than they would have been before? The hotspots are really good, particularly for business, but do not provide broadband to everybody in the locality.

With regard to the main build works, I recall speaking about the connections to Ballinasloe and Roscommon some years ago, back when the Chair was the Minister. Is that work almost finished now? It is something I have meant to check in recent times. I refer to Ballinasloe and Roscommon town.

I am no expert on this and do not pretend to be. I know very little about the technology. I will not talk as if I know more but I will bring it down to the practicalities. I have to work my office from home now. I have an Oireachtas line. I am told that Eir has brought ducting to either side of my house. The Chairman knows the area very well. The ducting comes down 2 km from my house on one side and less than 1 km from it on the other side. Even with my Oireachtas line, I cannot get into half of my meetings. Many of my neighbours are in similar situations. The service is broken down half the week. It is of no benefit to me and this is a very significant drawback from my perspective. It means that, on days when I would prefer to be at home, I have to be out, but that is beside the point.

How long will it be before those dots are joined up? There are cases like this all over the country. It is very significant for rural Ireland. If we do not join up those dots, many people will lack a proper broadband service for a number of years. In a number of rural areas, there are people with very successful businesses who come to my office every week to tell me their broadband is really bad and that this is a drawback for their businesses. They could be employing two, four or five people. They seem to be given very little hope by anybody. They are in outlying rural areas.

To be honest, there are huge problems with rural broadband across Europe. It is not just Ireland. There is chaos in parts of rural Britain because people cannot get broadband. It is the same in parts of Germany. It is not only an Irish problem. Nobody can pretend it is all going to be fixed over two or three years. It is not but we must go out of our way to ensure those businesses can continue to operate in today's business world because it will have a bigger effect on rural Ireland. These people will certainly not be able to continue as is. How can we improve the lot of those people, of whom there are many in the Roscommon-Galway region, as my colleagues here will know? I appreciate this is challenging and difficult. I appreciate that progress can be slow at times but I would appreciate clarification on the questions I have asked.