Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will give the Minister of State a little insight because I know the game fairly well. I know many of the contractors - not the main contractors or the subcontractor - but a lot of the ordinary hedge-cutting contractors that do the different types of work related to broadband provision. I can tell the Minister of State what is going on out there because seemingly people do not realise it. When it comes to hedge cutting, the minimum is being done and there will be problems in a year or two. The way it was measured with Eir, which will not throw money at you, the surveying that was done was unbelievable. I do not know where it got some of the engineers that did the surveying, but the hedge cutting that is going on and the way it is being priced means that contractors are walking away from it.

The Minister of State does not see this, but for the ordinary people who are doing the work out there on the ground there are savage problems that are not being recognised. It is about time that the Department officials went out to talk to the ordinary Joe Soap, not the guys in the suits who are going around bluffing, and some other word I would use - BS - to people, but the guys who are out there doing the work. They have done it for years with the likes of Eir and, as I said, Eir would not throw money at you, no way. I would never say that, but as bad as it was, it was cutting. There are certain heights even under the line now; that is the way it has gone. If a hedge-cutting contractor misses a piece, or if he or she only does a certain piece, then that contractor does not get paid for that. The way it is being done is absolutely horrendous because down the road a machine will have to be put in again to cut it.

I am taking up Deputy Harkin's time, but I ask the Minister of State to try to get someone to talk to the ordinary people who are doing the work on the ground. I understand about the blockages and everything. Contractors should be permitted by councils - they should not have to get licences and all that. I ask the Minister of State to go out to look at that. If people only knew what was going on with this broadband, they would be frightened.

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