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

I thank Deputies Cahill and Murnane O'Connor. They have raised two slightly connected but separate issues. I will respond first to Deputy Cahill on Eir's shockingly poor customer response performance and the lady who he said was waiting for hours to try to get on to Eir to cancel a service, but was not able to do so and ended up landed with the bill. That is totally unsatisfactory and something the company will have to address. ComReg maintains a regular assessment of the delivery of service and how companies are meeting their objectives. Given the difficulty experienced and the fact that Deputy Cahill is hearing this from a number of constituents, it is something the company and the regulator, ComReg, will have to address.

In response to Deputy Murnane O'Connor, I will focus on the national broadband plan because it is a critical way of helping to overcome the problem and to deliver high broadband speeds to the entire country.

The plan sets out an intervention area which covers 1.1 million people, 544,000 premises and 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools. The objective is to pass premises in all counties, including County Carlow, within the first two years and more than 90% of premises in the State having access to high-speed broadband within the next four years.

The map of areas that will be covered is available on the www.broadband.gov.iewebsite. This shows which areas will be included as well as those targeted by commercial operations, such as Eir and SIRO, which is a joint venture between the ESB and Vodafone.

There are 28,291 premises in County Carlow of which 29%, or 8,158, will be provided with high-speed broadband through State-led intervention. The remaining 20,000 or so premises are in areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high-speed broadband services.

As Deputy Murnane O'Connor said, the national broadband plan intends to spend €32 million in County Carlow. As of 4 November, 122,000 premises across the country have been surveyed. In County Carlow, 4,889 have been surveyed so far where we are looking to see exactly how to get the fibre into the house. We map out the various poles or alignment to make it happen.

Surveys are complete in the areas the Deputy mentioned and in Downings, Ballymurphy, Coppenagh, Killerrig, Friarstown, Slaney Quarter and Kilmagarvoge. Surveys are currently under way in Muine Bheag, Borris, Ballinkillen, Garryhill, Knockdramagh, Drumphea, Coshill, Ballyfeanan, Kilcarraig, Gowlin, Ballon, Glynn, St. Mullin's, Hollybrook, Myshall, which the Deputy mentioned, Liselican and Cappawater. I hope I got my Carlow pronunciation right; it is a test.

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