Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Naughten, on his appointment. I know he will do an excellent job and that he will not be found wanting in his delivery of broadband. I also congratulate Deputy Hildegarde Naughton on her appointment as Chair of the Committee on Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources. She will be busy. It is good to have in the House today the two most important people with regard to broadband provision. I am sure any pilot project that will be rolled out will be done in the west. I compliment the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Humphreys, on the presentation she gave recently regarding the proposal to roll out broadband in Ireland.

As the Minister, Deputy Naughten, is aware, there is a massive digital divide between rural and urban areas in the State. On the one hand, broadband connection speeds of up to 1,000 Mb per second are being offered by some commercial companies in cities. However, in rural areas people are struggling in many cases to get speeds of even 1 Mb, which is not much better than the old dial-up connection when the Internet was in its relative infancy. People are suffering daily as a result. Consider the difficulties of trying to operate a business without a reliable broadband service in this day and age which requires daily connectivity to customers and suppliers. It cannot be done.

A proper Internet connection has also long since gone from being an enjoyable pastime for rural households to being vital to them. One of the biggest problems faced by many rural areas over a number of decades is a growing sense of isolation. Their sense of community, in many cases, has been gradually eroded by a combination of factors, including a loss of local jobs to bigger companies, usually located in urban areas, emigration of huge numbers of the younger generation, and closures of post offices, shops and Garda stations. That sense of isolation will continue to grow at pace in areas which do not have a high speed broadband connection or even a broadband connection of any kind.

While connection speeds continue to grow in the larger urban areas, it is not just a question of creating new employment opportunities. It is increasingly about people being forced out of their home areas because they cannot make a living without reliable and fast Internet access. Even farming is becoming an occupation that cannot function without broadband. More and more forms have to be filled in online.

My home county of Galway is a good example of the level of connectivity that exists in rural areas compared with larger urban areas. Of more than 133,000 premises, including residential and commercial, 62,000 require State intervention to bring them an Internet service. This is in a county that is home to the third largest city in the country where commercial companies will meet the majority of the demand for broadband connections. Almost all that huge number of homes and businesses expected to be covered by State intervention under the national broadband plan will be located in rural areas of the county.

Figures provided recently by the Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, indicate that more than 56,000 premises in Galway currently have no access to high speed broadband and another 62,500 premises do not have broadband of a sufficient standard. If one removes the figure of 40,000 homes and businesses in Galway city, one is left with the stark reality that less than 13% of those outside the main urban area are without broadband.

I welcome the commitment of the Minister to rectify this situation and his intention to bring high speed broadband to every home in the country. I understand that rolling out such an extensive plan will take time, but I know the Minister will push for it. I know too that the committee will not be left standing either and will support him in his endeavours. I urge him, however, to proceed at the fastest possible pace before even more rural communities have the life squeezed out of them. For the rural communities to survive and thrive in today's world, broadband access is as vital to them as the massive programme of rural electrification was back in the middle of the last century.

I spoke earlier about broadband speeds in the context of a rural-urban digital divide. Ireland is the only country in Europe where average Internet connection speeds have fallen since last year, which is a matter of serious concern. The latest state of the Internet report just published by Akamai indicates a 14% decline, to an average of 14.4 Mb per second, in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015. The remaining countries on the Continent all enjoyed double digit gains over the same year according to this respected American based global Internet service provider. Norway, for example, increased its average speed by 68% over the same period, and 26 countries saw yearly gains of at least 25%. Ireland is now ranked 15th in Europe, although our average Internet connection speed is still ahead of Germany and France. At the start of 2015, Ireland ranked best in Europe and second in the whole world in terms of average connection speeds, at 17.4 Mb. This followed a huge improvement in speeds over 2014, but we are slipping back now at such a startling rate that it is a matter of serious concern. The slide down the index will have to be stopped as we strive to give all the people in the State a fighting chance to make a living and to live their lives where they want by arming them with high speed Internet connection, which is a basic necessity in this day and age.

I know the Minister and the Department will do this. I was impressed with the presentation he gave us. There will be many obstacles in his way. Some local authorities will be proactive while some will not. The Minister should work with local authorities where they are doing work in towns and villages, and he should work with Irish Water when it is laying pipes and constructing drainage schemes. It is important that these bodies work with the Department to ensure the infrastructure is installed at the same time to provide the service and they are not digging the streets twice.

I wish the Minister all the best in his position and I wish the same to the Acting Chairman.

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