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

Photo of Cormac DevlinCormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

All right. I just wanted to get a rough total of the number working on it. In his statement, Mr. Hendrick also mentioned NBI's co-operation and work with Eir and Enet. I commend him on his work for the islands. That is important. We are talking about rural Ireland and you cannot get much more remote than the islands. That work is essential because it will have benefits in terms of people returning to the islands and repopulating them and in sustaining communities. That is very welcome. However, there are also black spots in urban areas. Colleagues from across the House will know of black spots in towns, villages and cities in the areas they represent. There are several in my own area. I am not seeing the sense of urgency Mr. Hendrick has spoken about with regard to connections in those area. How are those issues going to be resolved? It seems that dealing with issues in urban areas would be simpler given that the services are practically outside people's doors. These providers, Eir, Enet and others, give commitments to connect these premises but it never happens. We are talking about years, long before 2020. People are losing faith. Ultimately, that is the engine of the economy. We need to ensure that there is good connectivity across cities and counties. What is going to happen there?