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:
Mr. Malone can give more detail throughout the meeting but the initial surveys are the critical part. We talk about surveys happening on the ground in respect of testing poles and testing duct to ensure it is clear to install cable. We were significantly behind in doing surveys, but we have now recovered in that area. We have put more surveyors into the field and we are ahead now. It is the same with designs, where we had a challenge in getting designers onto the programme. We have now put more designers into the programme and we are now ahead there as well. Equally, we are ahead with the connections. We have more contractors trying to get more homes connected.
The building programme is, of course, the most significant part of the challenge. We have more than 1,000 people actually building the network. Concerning the issue of the impact of Covid-19 and close contacts, we have teams of between four and six people. Therefore, if one person contracts Covid-19, that has a significant impact on the programme. What we are doing to recover in that regard is that we are increasing the number of make-ready activities happening. Eir has increased its volumes since October. The intent is that it will double the capacity in respect of the number of poles it will replace annually. Eir will also increase the amount of underground duct it is going to install from 1,500 km to 2,500 km annually.
Regarding the background, we had originally planned to deliver this project with two contractors. We now have four contractors on the ground, and we are also looking to bring additional contractors on board to increase our activity and the volume of completions annually. To give some context concerning where we stand today, in the first two months of this year we will be installing enough cable every month to get from here to Paris. Those figures will increase as the number of contractors working on the project and the number of builds increase. If it may be helpful, Mr. Malone can give more detail or answer further questions.