Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Many of these issues were looked at well in advance of the NBP. The Department is pretty clear in terms of the primacy of the national broadband plan as the route to creating proper broadband connectivity across the entirety of Ireland, particularly those areas that are not commercially viable. I have no doubt the new Minister is open to any innovative suggestions or proposals that would accelerate provision and enable particularly remote locations to have access to high connectivity. This would facilitate remote working, which is an objective of the Government and the programme for Government, and, as the recent Covid-19 experience has illustrated, is something that could be made more permanent in our workplace as an option and in enabling people to spend part of their week working from home. That would be economically beneficial to certain communities and localities but connectivity is needed to enable that. That is something we all share in the House.

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