Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on broadband. The issue is that broadband is the great enabler for rural Ireland. In many of the debates we had a number of years ago, we looked at broadband to try to have connectivity within rural Ireland. In the intervening two years, Covid-19 has shown us what rural Ireland can do. Despite the protests of the policymakers that we should all be living centrally in smaller units, Covid-19 has shown us the benefits of our rural communities. We should take that on board. That has been a great lesson for us over the last two years. By taking it on board, we must make sure the broadband issue is taken more seriously.

In his opening remarks, the Minister of State lamented the delays that are taking place with regard to the roll-out of broadband. It is hugely frustrating in one instance but it also hugely wrongs the entire island and all parts of this State to say that we are not taking this plan by the scruff of the neck and making sure it is happening and will happen on time. There is nothing more fundamental than the broadband plan.

Over the last two years, we have seen that whether people are working for State companies, employed by the State directly, employed by multinationals or working for any other number of companies, they have been working from home from the most remote areas. In the earlier period of the lockdown in March, April and May 2020, connectivity and wireless broadband was being looked at, particularly in my area, which is a very rural community. People were making alternative arrangements to the NBP. It is almost as if the providers of wireless broadband have gone beyond and filled a vacancy the State has been neglecting by not rolling it out fast enough.

We are where we are now. We have a delay in the system but we also need to look at the challenges. Previous speakers spoke about the inflexibility within the contracts both to Eir and the NBP. Flexibility needs to be brought in it. Many contributors have asked for that, not only in this debate today but in debates going back over time. I have certainly asked for it in terms of being able to name a raft of places right across my constituency.

We have seen it with the development of community organisations and groups. Even as late as yesterday, somebody spoke to me about accessing broadband in Aubane, Ballydaly and Glash. In Glash and Aubane, schoolhouses that were closed in the late 1960s and early 1970s have become community hubs but they also have broadband connectivity. People are using them because they are for the community but they also have the broadband that is necessary for people to carry out their work. We must also make sure that is one step. We must make sure that any new hubs that are going to be developed in villages and towns where funding is going to come from various government organisations to do the physical construction have top-quality fibre broadband and everything going for them.

While Covid-19 has shown us what can be done in rural communities, broadband is the great enabler or leveller to ensure we have everything. As I have said in many debates, broadband is as crucial as electricity, running water or the telephone in the late 1970s or early 1980s. It is not being taken with the same seriousness as I would like it to be, however. We should not be debating this again. We should be saying that the broadband plan has started and is happening rather than saying there are delays in it. It is totally unacceptable that there are delays. What are the delays in the plan doing? They are affecting decisions families are making in terms of working from home and engaging with their employers. We will be debating the new working from home Bill in a week or so but the great enabler is broadband.

We should not be saying "well, if we had a proper broadband service". It should be there regardless of whether one is in the most remote part of Ireland or in the city centres. Like water, telephone connections and electricity, broadband should be an essential part of our living today in every place. We have debated mobile phone coverage many times. Mobile phone coverage has been disappearing, rather than improving, over the years. I do not see the powers that be, such as ComReg and others, that are charged with making the necessary interventions on behalf of the State, taking it as urgently as they should. They should do so as a matter of grave urgency.

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