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

I thank the Deputy. It is not a €3 billion contract; it is a €2.1 billion contract. I have read many estimates of what the cost is or is predicted to be and many different numbers are thrown around. The maximum expenditure on this contract will be €2.1 billion. That is what is in the contract. The contract was agreed in 2019, a year before I took office, and it is my role as Minister of State to implement what is in the contract. The benefits of the contract are huge and very ambitious. They are no less than to bring fibre-optic broadband to every home, farm and business premises in the entire country. We know from the past two years that this is like providing an extremely basic utility that allows rural villages and towns to be revitalised, to become vibrant again and to bring jobs into them in a way that we had never considered previously. In the past, if we wanted to bring jobs or study places into a village or a town, we had to think about building a factory. Now, people are returning to their home towns, working there, bringing money there, and returning to their family locations because of fibre-optic broadband.

Some 55,000 families in Ireland can now apply for fibre-optic broadband in the intervention area. Deputy Catherine Murphy tells me that another 45,000 can get fibre-optic broadband from Eir in that area too. We will reach all 540,000 premises, including homes, farms and business premises, across Ireland, and provide them with a level of service that is unimaginable across Europe. The rest of Europe is not doing this. It is providing wireless access for the remotest parts of rural areas. We are providing a service that will allow people to study, work, conduct their commercial and social lives, and obtain Government services no matter where they live in the country. It is balanced regional development. It is a social, high-tech project. I am proud of it and I am delighted to be in charge of it. I am using all of my energy and enthusiasm to make sure that it is delivered.

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