Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to talk about working at home. To be honest, everybody's dream is to be able to work at home but, unfortunately, in my constituency it is not a reality. It is the type of country in which we live. Many other politicians have spoken to the Minister of State about communication and the need for a proper broadband service.

We do not have a proper broadband service in west Cork. We must ask many questions about how ComReg acts because there are many issues with regard to Eir. My office is inundated with issues regarding Eir. It is untouchable. Everybody is standing back and ComReg seems to be afraid in to take it on. It is a body which is paid a hell of a lot of money in this country and it has little answers for people who suffer great deals of anxiety around trying to work at home and who cannot do so.

There is a need for broadband whether it is in places like Sandycove in Kinsale, Kilmacsimon, around Inishannon and all the way back into Bantry. We have the same issue. We had a breakthrough, in fairness, for people who were trying to work from home in Gaggan. It became a national issue. They had to go to the local churchyard in Bandon to get a proper Internet service. I spent months with Three mobile and other operators to try to get that sorted and it took every bit of time we had. It took me six months but eventually, in fairness, Three mobile erected a mast that has given people maybe 100 Mbps of broadband in Gaggan, which is what they wanted. It was able to deliver that through this extra capacity being given out at present because of Covid-19. It is something we need to look at further.

I thank companies such as Digitalforge which has really given a fantastic broadband service. It is unfortunate it is up to a private operator to try to deliver a broadband service to the people of west Cork and most areas covered by Digitalforge. It provides a top class service to the best of its ability for a wireless operated company and gets little assistance from the Government. We need to focus on the wireless companies. Seeing as Eir and others cannot deliver broadband to the door, we need to look at those which can, such as Digitalforge. ComReg is paid by the State and needs to be answerable to the State.

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