Dáil debates

Tuesday, 6 February 2018

National Broadband Plan: Motion [Private Members]

 

9:55 pm

Photo of Thomas PringleThomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has not been a great week for rural Ireland and County Donegal, in particular. For one thing, the national planning framework promises to once again bypass an entire portion of the country, while broadband provision has been hit with the latest scandal, after eir pulled out of the tendering process in the past week.

I would like to take a moment to consider the national planning framework because, as I will discuss shortly, it is relevant to the ongoing fiasco that is the national broadband plan. What I want to discuss, in particular, is the narrative hashed out by the Government that it could not possibly get a return on its investment in rural Ireland and that it would be best to focus on the main cities and their never-ending growth. This narrative should be turned on its head because the dominant political parties have long pandered to the idea that what is good for Dublin is good for rural Ireland, even though that has not been the case. What is good for rural Ireland can only be good for Dublin and all other urban centres. If rural Ireland was well connected both in terms of transport infrastructure and broadband, jobs could remain local and thus create sustainable employment. The unsustainable growth in urban areas can be curbed to bring about a better quality of life for all those living in rural and urban areas. A new complementary relationship could then develop between rural and urban living. However, I suspect it would not serve the interests of big international financial investors and the multinational future the Government is so eager to create.

The plagued national broadband plan is another reiteration of the negative narrative for rural Ireland. It is an example of how centralised policy decision-making and private sector dominance has plagued public services. Rural towns have suffered enough in losing out on post office services, banks, Garda stations and even community hospitals. We then have the Government selling national broadband plan infrastructure to the private sector, which facilitated eir in getting the cream of the crop, the best premises covered by the plan, leaving a difficult and fragmented procurement process for the remaining 500,000 homes. The Minister announced all of those involved in the process but who still could not see it happening. There were 80 people working within his Department, as well as international experts such as Analysys Mason, PwC, Deloitte, Marsh Insurance, Mason Hayes & Curran, RPS Group, KPMG and Here and Now Business Intelligence, all of which could not see anything like this happening, which is amazing.

I want to give an example to highlight the pressing issue of broadband connectivity and what it means for development in County Donegal. One constituent emailed me recently to highlight his constant struggle to get any Internet connection after he had learned that eir's fibre to the home service stopped at the pole just before the turn-off to his house. He has missed out on a fibre broadband connection by mere metres and it takes him a couple of hours to do online what should only take 15 minutes. Meanwhile, his partner, a lecturer, struggles to work from home and both have decided to stop trying to work from home altogether. The person concerned is also engaged in a community project which is hugely beneficial to County Donegal. However, he cannot do much of the work involved from home because of the lack of broadband connectivity. For how long will he and other constituents in County Donegal have to wait to be connected? I am asked this question on a weekly basis by many people who are suffering the same issue and I have to tell them that I do not even think the Government knows the answer. It is not just about connecting fibre broadband to the home; it is also about connecting people, services and rural and urban communities. If we cannot see how broadband provision in rural Ireland would give a so-called return on State investment, the Government has serious questions that it needs to answer for people living in County Donegal and the 42% of the population who are classified as rural dwellers.

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