Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to engage with the Minister of State on this very important subject for rural Ireland. I was in the Department in the previous Government when the contract was signed and I supported it wholeheartedly because it is going to be a game changer for Ireland in the context of regional development. I still stand over the fact that if we had not signed the contract then, there are 55,000 connections that would not have been made now.

There are issues with the project. It is large, seven-year contract but it is my understanding that the majority of connections will be made within the first five years. The contract was signed in 2019 but we have had Covid for the past two years, which has been very disruptive. That said, a lot of people realised during Covid how important it is to have a proper broadband connection in their homes. They could see it first-hand when they could not work from home because they did not have broadband. It created huge problems. However, the broadband connection points and the hubs that have been set up with the help of the Western Development Commission and the Department of Rural and Community Development were asset-building exercises that have provided some relief for people.

The frustration for people now is that the project is not moving as fast as they would like. I make inquiries on behalf of constituents as to when broadband will be available in their area and often the reply I get back is that it will be some time in 2024 or 2025. We need to be sharper in our plans and in the targets we are setting. We also need to accelerate the work, now that restrictions have been lifted. In that regard, I am concerned about the relationship between Eir and NBI. Is the existing Eir network as bad as people say? If so, is this a factor in the delay in rolling out broadband to houses? What is being done by Eir to rectify this problem, if it is a problem?

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