Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to highlight the lack of delivery on the part of Eir in rural Ireland. The people I represent are extremely disappointed with the customer service Eir is providing and its approach to the roll-out of the national broadband plan. I receive complaints daily about the way Eir treats its customers and the manner in which it is supposedly connecting rural Ireland to high-speed fibre broadband. Eir regularly shows a complete and utter disregard for the concerns of the ordinary person in rural Ireland, its customers. This cannot continue. We expect people to work, to study from home and to live in rural Ireland with ease and comfort, yet Eir continues to disregard and ignore the needs and requests of its customers without the slightest bit of concern for the best interests of rural Ireland, in spite its being awarded a contract worth €900 million.

I will provide a number of examples in my constituency that prove the way Eir is treating its customers. One woman in the Thurles area contacted me stating she had tried and failed on numerous occasions to cancel her landline contract with Eir. Every time she called customer service she was left on hold for up to an hour. She was not able to cancel her plan for months, despite her best efforts. Then Eir turned around and informed her that she owed a bill of over €100 for that period. Her line had given her problems, she got fed up trying to get it fixed, she tried to cancel her plan and she met roadblock after roadblock with Eir's customer service. This is not acceptable. It would be laughable if it were not so frustrating for people in rural areas. I have a constituent in Portroe who lives just off the main road to Ballina. She is a teacher and during the first lockdown she had to teach a number of her classes from her car as there was so little reception in her house. Eir has run the broadband route along the main road in this area but not down its back roads. This means that this woman's neighbours can access high-speed broadband, work from home, study from home and live comfortably in their homes but she and her family do not enjoy the same connection.

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