Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy spoke about the differences between people's nominal broadband speeds and what they actually get, and the fact that, if many people suddenly start to work from home, the service will degrade for everybody because they are sharing a pipe at some point upstream. That is a real concern and we are working on it. Any Deputy who wants to meet the head of the national broadband plan in the Department can do so and can go through any issues he or she has. That offer always stands.

The Deputy went on to speak about the possibility of having a link-up between NBI and commercial providers. There are many black spots in urban areas, and where that happens, I expect it would make more sense for NBI not to bring in its own fibre but to pay one of the commercial providers to extend from next door to cover the black spot. NBI is in negotiations with more than one provider about that. There are three commercial providers, so I expect those black spots will be filled.

The ambition is to get gigabit fibre to everybody and to get away from copper. Fibre to the cabinet was good enough until two years ago but now it is not and people want to have fibre to their homes. The ambition is to get fibre to everybody's home, whether in an urban or rural area. Only 22% live in a national broadband plan area, while 78% live in the commercial areas.

See this speech in context