Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The national broadband plan, NBP, is an enormous undertaking. It is a €3 billion investment in rural Ireland. It is one I strongly support and one I fought to ensure would happen while I was Taoiseach. It is now very much under way. However, it takes time and the objective is, or at least was, to connect approximately 100,000 homes, farms and businesses every year but even at that rate, it is going to take between five and seven years. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to connect all homes, farms and businesses in the first or second year. It will take time. Unfortunately the plan is currently approximately six months behind schedule, principally due to the impact of the pandemic. While approximately 110,000 homes, farms and businesses were supposed to be connected this year, it is more likely to be closer to half that. The company does intend to catch up, however, and we are doing everything we can to help it do so in 2022 and 2023. There will be no additional cost to the taxpayer as a consequence of these delays.

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