James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One of the constants since I was elected to this House almost two years ago, and since I entered public life almost two years previously, has been the failure of the national broadband plan and of the various attempts to deliver and roll out broadband. It seems to be a hardy annual that the process is stalled, fudged and delayed. The can is kicked down the road again. This process seems to trundle on year after year. This pattern has been evident since 2012, when Pat Rabbitte made various announcements. In 2015, Alex White said that the devil and all would be delivered when it came to rural broadband. As Deputy Dooley has said, we have heard further promises of delivery from the Minister, Deputy Naughten, since he came into his current position two years ago. Each of these announcements came a couple of years after the previous one. The latest estimate for broadband to be rolled out is 2023. It beggars belief that ten years after it was announced this would be done by 2012, some 540,000 homes are still not connected to a piece of fibre in the ground. I remind the House that it will take between three and five years to build the network. It seems extraordinary that the tender has not yet been put in place.

It may be considered unfortunate to lose one bidder, but surely it is careless to lose two bidders. What happens if we lose the third bidder? What is plan B? I have heard the Minister, his officials and various others saying that 80 people have been working on the delivery of this plan for the past five years. God bless their energy, but what has actually been achieved? Two of the top three bidders have walked away from the process and the other one remains as the last man standing. I am reminded of Homer Simpson's belief that the best way to win a game is by default. That may be the case in a cartoon show, but it is hardly a way to award one the largest contracts in the history of the State.

We have seen multiple reports, Bills and regulations, but none of them has advanced. As the Minister knows, I have had a Bill on the Order Paper of this House for the past year. The aim of the Bill is to tackle many of these issues. The legislative schedule for the new term confirms that there is a Government Bill on the agenda which does essentially the same thing. I noticed another Bill - the telecommunications infrastructure Bill 2018 - in the House today. I assume it represents a third attempt to do the same thing. A ComReg report on competition in the broadband market has been delayed since 2016. Two years on, it has yet to be published.

What about the EU cost reduction directive which the Minister brought into Irish law in July 2016? It makes State assets and State infrastructure available to any provider, as needed. If other State infrastructure under State control were utilised to the full, it could result in the roll-out of the national broadband plan to the 540,000 homes that currently lack broadband. We cannot keep reinventing the wheel. At some stage, we will have to start delivering.

I wonder whether the decision that was made six months ago to allow Eir to cherry-pick 300,000 homes and lift them from the tender was the right one in retrospect. Eir was allowed to take the semi-viable parts of the business away so that what remained was essentially unviable, as we have now seen.

I wonder whether the adherence to a particular mode of technology - fibre to the home - at the expense of everything else might be obstructing and delaying the roll-out of broadband to many homes. We should consider alternative technologies like fixed wireless, which can deliver speeds of up to 70 Mbps, which is essentially twice as fast as the minimum standard under the national broadband plan. We should consider things like fibre to the cabinet. We could even utilise the old copper cables that are still there in many cases. Surely that would provide an interim solution for the many people who will now be waiting until 2023, at the very earliest.

I am sure we will hear many stories in the next couple of hours about how rural Ireland is being denied broadband and access to all the services provided through broadband. I represent commuter-belt Ireland. My constituency is less than 30 km from Dublin city centre, but it is being denied broadband. I think this is a national emergency that requires emergency measures. I hope the Minister will act accordingly.

See this speech in context