Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are indicative proposals but what we and the public need are definitive dates in relation to it. I am confident that, by 2020, more than 90% of people and premises will have access to high-speed broadband. I cannot be any more definitive than that until we award the contract and look at the build-out in relation to it.

I want to see this happen. My constituents, the people in Roscommon and Galway, are as frustrated as everyone else across the country that they do not have access to a broadband service or a mobile service at present, and that they must turn off their data, as I do, in order to get a mobile phone signal. That should not be the case. That is why we have released the 3.6 GHz spectrum to ensure we can improve the mobile phone coverage. That is why it is the first 5G enabled network that has been auctioned across Europe. On foot of that, we have already got one operator who tells me that it expects to have 85% geographic coverage of the country by 2019.

This is moving. It is not moving as quickly as I would like but it is moving. I am trying to fast-track this at every available opportunity.

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