Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy knows, part of the work of the task force was to appoint broadband officers in every single local authority in the country. They were in contact with the service providers and there was much good work done on the ground. As I said, 70 actions were completed. That collaboration still takes place today.

The last task force completed its work programme at the end of 2019. At that stage plans for a reformatted task force were well advanced but were very much of their time. Since then a new Government has been formed, the national broadband roll-out has started, Covid-19 has arrived and the priorities of all involved in the telecoms sector have quite rightly changed. As important as the strategic work of the task force has been and will be, the focus of the Government and the telecoms sector has had to pivot dramatically in the last two years to provide immediate solutions to the challenges that face us all. Task force members were at the centre of those immediate solutions and made excellent use of the lines of communication established by the task force. They continue to use those and to apply the proactive and collaborative approach.

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