Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have two questions. First, have Government officials met Eir to discuss the issue of inflexibility in areas in which it is currently expanding the broadband network? In communities with only two, three or four houses it makes common sense to tell Eir that the fibre cable is passing them and ask why it cannot connect them to it. In the case of some of the communities it is serving, if more power was injected into initial delivery, Eir would be able to provide access further out on the line. Irrespective of the fictitious broadband plan about which the Government is talking, I need the Minister to get his officials to talk to Eir to see if there is some flexibility in getting broadband to the communities I have mentioned. I will not detail the entire area of north Cork, but every community within the Duhallow region is affected.

Second, the Minister spoke about Brexit being the reason the Government did not have enough time to make a decision before Easter which would delay it by a few weeks. If it comes out in, say, the first week of May with an announcement on broadband, the entire public will make only one comment, namely, that it is gobbledygook and that it is only being rolled out in advance of the European and local elections, as happened five years ago. People will not buy it. I refer to the Minister's figure of 74,000 houses, all of which must be on the northern side of Cork North West. I know the people who are coming to me. There are swathes of north Cork into west Cork and other parts of the county that are without a broadband connection. A broadband service is essential in the way we live today. Either the Minister or his officials should examine ways to be flexible in that regard. For God's sake, if possible, they should roll out the plan.

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