Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Thanks in part to the hard work of our local authority, Longford County Council, and keen, civic-minded community groups, County Longford is awash with top-quality regeneration projects. One of these I wish to discuss with the Minister of State is the Yard Hub in Abbeyshrule, on the banks of the canal. It involves the redevelopment of a derelict site in the hope of creating a new village hub, creating a space for economic and enterprise development and enhancing the first impressions of visitors to the village as they make their way along the Royal Canal greenway. The Yard Hub seeks to provide local people currently commuting with an opportunity to work remotely and to bring activity to the village. The recent pandemic has emphasised more than ever the need to create the space, opportunity and means to work closer to home. It is a measure of the project and perhaps the ambition of its promoters that successful young local entrepreneur Garret Flower, CEO of ParkOffice, is enthusiastically supporting this project. This young tech entrepreneur, who pioneered the world's first parking software, believes the project will foster a creative community of collaboration and self-improvement, focusing on IT learning.

To date, almost €1 million in funding has been set aside for the project. I think the Minister of State will agree that that sounds fantastic, but it now transpires that Eir is unwilling to provide a dedicated fibre connection for this project. The promoters asked the broadband officer with Longford County Council, Christine Collins, who is doing Herculean work, to seek out the connection and now the project promoters have been told that the only connection available to the premises and the project is digital subscriber line, DSL, and that the premises is not passing for fibre of any sort, be it efibre, fibre to the home, FTTH, or even fibre to the cabinet, FTTC. The promoters have also been made aware that the local exchange needs to be upgraded to next generation network, NGN, in order for the hub to be in a position to order a dedicated fibre connection.

We have invested a lot of hope and an awful lot of expectation in Eir and its ability to roll out broadband, and the early indications are certainly not good. I think everybody in the House will agree that this is the type of landmark project that the company should embrace and promote if it is serious about its role in the most ambitious national roll-out plan since electrification. I ask the Minister of State and the Department to engage immediately with the company to ensure that the necessary infrastructure to facilitate a €1 million State investment gets the support it needs and that this hard-working community in rural Ireland deserves.

See this speech in context