Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to my party for pushing to have this debate and to get everything on the record about this issue, which is the signal issue in rural Ireland. The post offices and Garda stations are important issues but this is much more important. All the issues have been well played out in this debate. I intend to list the concerns of my constituents. I invited them to address their concerns to me this week. I have heard it all before because many of them have been on to me for some considerable time. I asked them to comment on their positions and feel it would be useful to read the comments into the Dáil record.

Kevin from the Slane area: "very inconsistent". Carol from Rathkenny: "area is very poor". They had 0.5 Mbps with Vodafone through the Eir line and recently moved to mobile broadband with a separate home phone and it is costing a fortune. Jane from Drumree: "no broadband or television". Mary from Rathkenny: "bad broadband".

Gareth in respect of a school in Culmullen: "the fibre stops 500 m from the school". This is all across the place. I mBaile Ghib sa Ghaeltacht, tá an snáithín leathanbhanda ag dul díreach in aice leis an scoil, ach níl leathanbhanda ag an scoil Gaeltachta sin. There is no priority to connect schools. I say that as education spokesman as well. It is absolutely outrageous that schools are not prioritised because at the very least if the children do not have broadband at home surely they should be able to have broadband in their schools. That is right up and down the constituency.

Ciara from Newgrange: "very bad coverage there". Many others from the Dowth and Newgrange area have been in touch as well. Shane from Screen says that Screen seems to be have been given fibre to the home in various patches but there are big gaps between each patch. This makes no sense to me; some are given incredible speeds while their neighbours are barely even getting internet signal. That is the digital divide. It is not just between urban and rural areas but between rural and rural. Some people have it due to the Minister's decision of last year with Eir. The Government, in cahoots with Eir, gave it to some people to try and get them off their backs but they created an awful divide in rural Ireland.

Assumpta, north of Navan, says there is no broadband in Castletown Kilberry, extremely poor mobile broadband only, very expensive and slow. Monica in Cormeen, a rural area in north Meath: "very bad mobile and broadband coverage". Again, there are comments in respect of Dowth and Newgrange from Margaret. Constituents just outside the town of Kilcock say there is no broadband and they are paying over the top for a very limited satellite Internet service. Mobile coverage is a joke as well. One constituent tried to get a landline but was unsuccessful. If they had a proper landline, Sky would give them broadband. They are only a couple of miles outside Kilcock; it is ridiculous. Liam is in the Kilcloon area, where today they had a "no wash, no drink" water notice from Irish Water. Everybody puts it up on social media but in Kilcloon, which is just a few miles outside the town of Maynooth, a lot of people would not have had the broadband to look at WhatsApp, Twitter or Facebook to find out about a very urgent health situation today where children suffered serious burns as a result of negligence that has been alleged on the part of Irish Water.

Linda in the Kiltale area: "Eir has stopped fibre broadband halfway up in Derrypatrick, Drumree in Kiltale". It is not right that the other people are suffering bad Wi-Fi. Rosemary says that Eir fibre is being rolled out in two directions towards her house but it stopped short of hers and a lot of others in the area. At present, they can get fixed line broadband at a speed of 2 Mbps. It is a joke so they have opted for a very limited 100 GB very expensive mobile broadband which really only lasts 20 days. It is ridiculous. It is impossible to afford to pay for that for longer than 20 days in the month. That is what is happening. People are so frustrated at this digital divide. Colette tells me there is no broadband. I know this. I know all these issues but it is important to read them into the record. There is no broadband in the Kilbeg area. They are paying a fortune for satellite broadband with mediocre coverage.

Peter Whelan from Slane is a man who featured on "Nationwide" recently in respect of his organic pig farm where he produces the best of bacon. I bought my Christmas ham off Peter this year as I usually do. He lives just outside the village of Slane. He has no broadband whatsoever. He is trying to run a business with a mobile phone that only works in one corner of his house. This is a man who has been featured on television, who is part of the Meath food series and the Boyne Valley food series where we are really trying to promote the best natural food products that we can get. The food is not processed very much but really is the best of stuff. He can only get mobile coverage in a corner of his house and is trying to sell products and organise things. The utility company is currently putting in new cables, but only to the main road at the end of their lane at Rathmaiden in Slane.

Maria tells me the story of Scoil Ultain Naofa i mBaile Ghib sa Ghaeltacht. Tá an cás sin luaite agam cheana agus tá sé sin ag tarlú ar fus na ceantair tuaithe. Orla tells me in respect of Killeen in Dunsany that broadband is being rolled out to the first three houses. The majority of the houses are not being serviced.

Catherine, who lives south of Slane, tells me that she lives near the main road and has difficult traffic to navigate, but she has no broadband. She can see all the traffic passing by every day of the week. What can she do?

David says that he has Eir landline and broadband which costs €62 a month for 3 Mbps. Eir mobile costs him €45 per month for 1 to two Mbps. He cannot cancel because of contracts. His mobile phone, on the Three network, gets over 10 Mbps and he only pays €20 per month. He lives in the Duleek area, and says that the service is a joke. In my own case I have to say that the Three mobile coverage is better than what Eir is providing via landlines.

Aidan in Dowth says there is no broadband in Dowth, Newgrange or Knowth, which are world heritage sites. My good friend, Michael Lynch from Corboggy, in Moynalty says there is very poor broadband there and in all the townlands in the vicinity. That is a CLÁR area and is a rural area that I do not want to see forgotten about. We talk about rural and urban divides. We are talking about areas such as Corboggy, CLÁR areas, very rural areas in the north of my constituency. We are also talking about areas just outside Drogheda, Maynooth and Kilcock which have poor broadband.

Sarah tells me that she cannot get broadband in Bellewstown. Another constituent says that there is no broadband at all in Woodtown and that the only option is a plug-in stick. Grainne says that she has a family of six, with four children under six years old. They live in Kilcloon, seven kilometres from the university town of Maynooth. Their house is one of 14 on a one kilometre long lane, and six of the houses have received e-fibre broadband. That kind of divide on a lane is isolating people and is causing terrible hardship for them. It is hardship for professional people such as Grainne who I am sure would like to work from home occasionally but cannot.

Keena tells me that she works from home and tries to run an e-commerce business. She says that it is incredibly difficult because her broadband is so unreliable. She lives only one kilometre off the Trim Road at Batterstown, and e-fibre only reaches the first few houses on the road. Claire tells me that she lives in Ballymacall in the south of the county. Eir told her that it could not provide her with standard broadband in her home because it is at the end of the line and the signal is lost for weeks at a time. She says there is a good signal at the gate but it weakens the further up the drive she goes. Deirdre tells me that Kilcloon, Batterstown and Culmullen all need a better service. These are areas which are very close to Dublin. These are not places like Connemara or the Burren down in Clare. This is very close to Dublin, and we still cannot get it right.

Nicky tells me that he cannot get any sort of broadband as his home is too far from the main exchange in Dunboyne. Even Imagine, which has tried to be innovative, is not an option because of the trees around his home. Vicky tells me that she can get a maximum of 2 Mb in Longtown in the south of Meath, in the Culmullen area. She says that it is a disgrace because there are more than 20 houses on this road. The fibre roll-out stops at Mulhussey on the Maynooth side and also on the Kilcock side, totally skipping her area. When she contacted Imagine, she found out that the mast was full so there was no decent alternative option.

Justine says that she lives on a road between the main Trim road between Batterstown and Kennedy Road in the Dunboyne area, at the back of Woodpark Stud. She says that fibre is running down the Trim road and is being started on Kennedy Road. Despite that, her road, which is in the middle and has approximately ten houses, is being ignored. Charles, who is a veterinary professional, tells us that he cannot do school homework or projects with kids and cannot work from home. He says that he has relocated a business from the area because of Internet issues.

I believe it was a useful exercise to set out the concerns of my constituents, representing a broad cross-section of opinion, from very isolated areas to very highly populated rural areas. They cannot get the broadband they need. It is a crying shame, and it is an indictment on the Government that the process has gone this way. I wish the Minister well, because my constituents and I want broadband, but the Government is going to have to get its act together on this issue.

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