Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 10 February 2022
Public Accounts Committee
2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters
9:30 am
Mr. Peter Hendrick:
The obligation on NBI to ensure we drive demand and take-up. We are in a very different place today than we were two or three years ago. Two or three years ago we had many people saying the project was not needed, there was not a demand for broadband and the risk was unquantifiable. Where we sit today with hindsight, we say the world is moving towards fibre. The European Commission has committed to gigabit connectivity for every premises by 2030. The demand for high-speed broadband is there today. We are seeing the evidence with people working remotely and the demand and take-up on the NBI network. We know we have to deliver the network as quickly as possible.