Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the efforts he is making to deal with this issue. There are huge challenges, however. Like my colleague from Cork North-Central, I want to convey my concerns about the constituency. Cork is the second biggest city in the country and huge areas now are on the schedule for 2025-26. That is not good enough.

We also have a problem whereby Eir is providing broadband on one side of the road and people on the other side cannot get access to it. I know of one case - one of many - where the pole that the cable is attached to is on the entrance to a particular house. Eir will not provide the broadband to that house yet it will take it 200 yards down the road and provide it to another house. That is not good enough.

The other issue I wish to raise relates to area hubs. We have rolled out these hubs in quite a number of places in my area, including Courtbrack and Whitechurch. We need hubs in other areas, in particular where there will be a delay in the roll-out of broadband from house to house. We need hubs in communities. I have raised three specific areas with Cork County Council and the various authorities: Glenville, Inniscarra community centre and Mourneabbey. These are areas in which a huge number of houses do not have access to broadband. In Inniscarra, for instance, there are more than 900 children in primary school yet huge sections of that parish do not have access to broadband. If 900 children are in primary school, another 900 children from that area are either in college or secondary school. We have no broadband in quite a number of parts of that parish.

We need to be far more proactive with the providers where broadband is in the boundary zone. Why are we applying the rules strictly to the boundary when houses are within a very short distance of where the supply is going? It is something we need to resolve very fast. Many things have changed over the Covid-19 period. It has created huge problems for people and huge difficulties for families. It is now accepted that more people will be working from home.

The final issue I wish to raise is in relation to new housing estates. We are not applying adequate pressure with regard to new housing estates being built. One cannot build an estate unless one has a road, a water supply and a sewerage connection yet we will not make it a condition that an estate must also have a broadband connection. The delay in getting broadband into new housing estates is not good enough. We should have it far faster. It should be there the day the keys are handed over to the purchaser. People should not have to wait 12, 18 or 24 months to get a broadband connection.

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