Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The mobile phone and broadband task force was established in July 2016 to examine solutions to broadband and mobile phone coverage deficits across the country, as well as to identify tangible actions which could be taken to improve the quality of these services.

The task force published its report in December 2016. It made a series of recommendations, backed up by 40 agreed actions, to address a wide range of issues impacting on broadband and mobile phone services in areas such as planning, access to infrastructure, network improvement and consumer matters.

Along with the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, I co-chair an implementation group which oversees the implementation of all actions in the task force report. Quarterly reports on progress made in implementing the actions are published on my Department's website.

Some of the key measures progressed by my Department include co-funding the employment of a broadband officer in each local authority to facilitate the roll-out of telecoms infrastructure; working closely with mobile operators and local authorities to identify specific mobile phone black spot areas and identify solutions to improve coverage in those areas.

A national stakeholder forum was convened on 6 October 2017 in Athlone, bringing together key stakeholders to highlight any barriers being experienced in the implementation of actions and to suggest new recommendations for the task force implementation group to accelerate the provision of improved services to consumers.

Officials from my Department and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment are finalising a report of the work of the implementation group in 2017. I anticipate it will be published shortly. A 2018 work programme for the implementation group has also been agreed and an outline of this programme will be included in the 2017 annual report.

See this speech in context