Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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Regarding the figures we have for the number of premises to be connected, there are 537,000 premises, 1.1 million people, 54,000 farms, 44,000 non-farm businesses and 700 schools. We have dealt with the schools issue. In the next month or two, can we get a breakdown of the numbers of premises connected? There is a difference between premises connected and the availability of services to those premises. Therefore, the committee needs to be provided with both those sets of figures. Perhaps sometimes people are not taking on offers, but we need to know the number of premises where the service is available and the number connected. We also need to see the number of people who have benefited, or an estimate, and a breakdown of the figures for farming and non-farming businesses. Can we get those figures as well? I ask because I think it is important that we get a breakdown of the connections in place. Can we also set out the targets for between now and January 2024? We had 34,000 premises connected in January 2022. Talking about January 2024, which will be two years on, what is the target for connections then? Perhaps it might be possible to get figures in this regard.