Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Like so many other projects the national broadband plan has been delayed slightly by the Covid-19 pandemic due to the difficulty of completing certain work but it has not been delayed as much as other projects. A lot of the work of recent months, such as surveying poles to see which ones need to be improved or upgraded, could continue. By the end of this year we expect to be pretty much on target in terms of delivery timelines.

I note another factor that may help accelerate progress. We started this project in a world where it was very hard to get construction workers. There were so many different demands and construction activities taking place. Post Covid-19 it may be a possible to access workers and contractors more quickly than was the case six months ago when the economy was at full tilt.

Moreover, hopefully there is a benefit for everyone in this. Acceleration might be helped by increased confidence that the uptake of these services will be on the higher end of our expectations, because we are seeing the benefits of remote working and the use of high-speed broadband in a way we would not have expected six months ago. I hope that might help us to accelerate the process to the benefit of all concerned.

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