Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

They do not have good infrastructure. As the main employment base in this very rural area is agriculture, people have to do a great deal of work online. It will be a great relief for them to know that they are about to get very good broadband infrastructure. This also will be a great improvement for their family lives. It will be a great improvement for their children who are attending college in Galway or Athlone because they will not have to stay in those locations at the weekend. They will be able to come home and it will be possible for them to download and upload their various assignments from home. Up to now, they have had to stay in Galway or Athlone because this infrastructure has not been in place.

When I speak to people in places in my constituency like Kylebrack, Portumna and Headford, they tell me their broadband speeds are not great. They are not reaching out to the entire area. I had better not forget Killimor, which is definitely in the black hole where broadband will never be provided. Even under the existing plan, it was going to be left on the back foot. At the same time, it was going into the town itself. It was going to be delivered in a number of spaces, but it was not going to be delivered out. People like to know where the vision is going. People like to know the timeframes. People do not look for something that cannot be delivered. However, it is certain that people do not like to hear that something is going to be stalled or held up, or that they might never get it. They like to know.

As Deputy Martin Kenny said, broadband is like oxygen to people in rural Ireland. Reference has been made to the national planning framework document. Much of the infrastructure that people need is broadband. Many people are going to work from home. They are not going to commute to Dublin. They will not go into Galway because it does not have a ring road. They will not go into Sligo because of the lack of connectivity in the absence of the completion of the M17-M18. They certainly need fibre-optic broadband coming to their doors. They need to know it is future-proofed. They need to know, just as we did in the case of rural electrification, that the light will not go off after five or ten years. They need to know that broadband will continue to be available so that they can maintain their businesses and other forms of infrastructure.

As Deputy Heydon said, this is about family lives, education, small businesses and people who work. All the Departments, including the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Employment Affairs and Social Protection, have gone online. We are encouraging this. Even banking has gone online. Everything has gone online. We are telling people we need them to move with the modern era, but unfortunately they do not have the opportunity to do so because they do not have the broadband or the broadband speeds.

We do not want to stop progress. I would not want to be part of anything that would stop progress. When I knocked on the doors of Galway East, broadband was one of the biggest issues I encountered. People told me they need broadband so that their children who are in education in Galway can come home to Kylebrack or Marble Hill at the weekend and be able to upload their assignments from there. It was costing these parents a fortune to keep their children in Galway at the weekend, but they could not come home because they would be unable to download their materials. The reality of what we are talking about in these statements is the lack of a form of infrastructure that is available in our cities, where it works really well and is taken for granted.

I would like to speak about the upgrading of the fibre broadband that took place in my home town of Portumna, where my office is located. Eighteen months ago, I could not work from my own home or take a phone call in my house. I was living in another black hole. I will admit that the improvement in mobile phone coverage has made a difference to my life. I can work from home. I can spend more time with my children. I do not need to be down in the office at unearthly hours of the night because I have to send an email or something like that. I know the value of this infrastructure, but I also understand the frustration, upset and anguish that people are experiencing at present. There is a fear among the 33% of people who are waiting for broadband that they will not get it. They do not know when they will get it.

I do not want to speak about the history of the past - who bought what, where it all went and everything else like that. I think we need to start talking positively. As Deputy Martin Kenny said, we need to know where this is going, when our sleeves will be rolled up and when the people will get broadband. Broadband is what people are looking for. If it is not delivered into people's houses, it will crucify every single politician the next time we knock on the doors. We are all realistic in this regard. There has to be a real meeting of minds with those involved, including the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, the Department of Finance and the sole remaining bidder. There could be a public private partnership. I am only throwing out there these sorts of things. We have to know how we are going to deliver to the people.

A great deal of education in secondary schools has moved online. Many second-level students are working from e-books. They need to have an opportunity to upload their lesson plans when they go home in the evenings. I think I have set out many of my frustrations in this regard. The big prize in rural Ireland is getting fibre-optic broadband into one's house. I wish the Minister well because I think he has an enormous task. I do not think we can go back to the people without having delivered broadband on this occasion.

See this speech in context