Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is a source of concern that the infrastructure is not to the required standard. I understand that as part of this contract, nearly €1 billion will be given to Eir for the use of its infrastructure. The contract is for €2.1 billion, plus a contingency that brings it closer to €3 billion and of that, more than €900 million is going to Eir for the use of its existing infrastructure. Let us call a spade a spade here. It is time for Eir to wake up and smell the roses. It must come to the table because it is getting a hell of a lot of money out of this contract. It must make sure that it does not put any impediments in the way of progress and, indeed, remove any impediments that do exist.

When Eir was setting out to provide broadband connections to houses in rural Ireland, it connected in circles but left large pockets unconnected, where 100 m would have made the difference between connecting houses and not connecting them. That is the way Eir left it and that is why we have a national broadband plan. That is why the State has to do this. We need to be a bit more forthright and rather than just talking to Eir, we need to point out that it has a responsibility to the people of Ireland to make sure that its infrastructure is right. It is getting a hell of a lot of money out of this contract. As the Minister of State said, there have been a lot of short-term owners who took their money and ran but the people will not tolerate that anymore. It is very important that people in rural Ireland are given assurances that there will be no impediments to progress. If ducts have collapsed, they must be fixed. Surveys were done two years ago. NBI personnel were out in their vans, assessing the quality of the infrastructure. We need to move fast to remove any impediments that exist. There must also be a better working arrangement between Eir and NBI to relieve any blockages.

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