Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As the Ceann Comhairle will be aware, as a member of the Business Committee I supported the taking of the questions and answers session earlier in the debate on the structure and roll-out of the NBP. I also called for it in the House before Christmas, as Members are genuinely concerned by what the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, called earlier, "a complex corporate structure". We have heard of references to holding companies, entities and subcontractors. It is mesmerising.

I reiterate that the Minister of the day was kept at arm's length from the procurement process, which meant that the Minister had no knowledge of this structure. The Department itself was responsible for the governance of the national broadband plan and departmental officials need to be brought before the relevant committees to answer questions on these particular issues.

As Minister, it was always my intention to publish the contract and only exclude the bare minimum and I believe that has not yet been fulfilled. While all of this is important, the primary focus of questions that I have been receiving as a public representative is when people will get access to the broadband network.

While I was blamed for being too attentive to the project, the present Government ignored this project for the past two years. It has, at least in part, contributed to the current slippage with the project now running 12 months behind target despite the commitments in the programme for Government to fast-track the project. The Government made that promise to fast-track the project and then it sat on its hands. The Government has tried to pass off these delays as due to Covid In September, the Oireachtas was given a revised target of passing 60,000 premises by the end of the year and instead they passed only 35,000 by 1 January, a slippage of 25,000 premises in only 107 days. In reality, this means that 100,000 fewer homes will have access to the high-speed broadband at the end of this year than was planned when the contract was signed in November 2019.

I have put on the Dáil and the committee record where, I believe, the Government has failed but, to the credit of the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, he has been prepared to listen to suggestions and to act upon them. I want to acknowledge that and put forward some constructive suggestions. I was on the ground in Blessington looking at the build-out and it was clear that there were substantial challenges with the condition of the existing network. This was known for many months. I acknowledge that the Minister of State, before Christmas, sat down with the chief executives of both Eir and NBI to help address these delays but with the clear issues on the condition of the existing network, one has to ask the question as to why we had to wait 25 months into the contract for that meeting to take place. I want to know, on foot of this particular meeting, what is now being done by Eir to resolve these particular issues. I also want to know if the issue of the quality of the surveying came up in those discussions because I understand that some of the drawings that the NBI build contractors received had no bearing whatsoever to the existing infrastructure that was on the ground.

We also need to be honest with people. Everyone cannot be connected at the start of the build programme. That is why, as Minister, I insisted on the roll-out of the broadband connection points providing high-speed BCPs in rural communities, which has now morphed into digital hubs providing hot-desking facilities across this country. The vast majority of the population today now have access to one of these within 30 minutes of them and that is a positive development. This project has now been expanded to include all primary schools and several marts, which is also very welcome.

I ask the Government to ensure that everyone has access to a provisional date for connection to this network right across the 227 deployment areas. Even if at this stage it is only a list of how NBI will progress through each of those 227 deployment areas, it at least gives an indication to people. This would not only bring clarity to families and business, but also to alternative wireless providers who can focus their marketing and deployment on those homes that are later in the build programmes.

As NBI delivers fibre broadband to homes, families will come off these wireless services. Companies, such as Eurona Brisknet in County Roscommon, are pre-selling fibre connections. When people are connected, they are moving that equipment to more isolated homes providing them with a broadband service allowing them to work from home and gain some of the benefit of the connections that have taken place. The reality is there will be only a short window for a return on this supplementary deployment and we need the local authorities and State bodies to provide temporary sites free of charge to allow them to expand their reach. This is a cost-effective way to extend the benefit of the early deployment areas to homes that will be waiting a number of years for a fibre connection. There is no point spending another 25 months thinking about this. There are proactive wireless companies, such as Eurona Brisknet, that are willing to embrace this model if the State meets them halfway. It should not be forgotten that I released the 5G network specifically to support the roll-out by companies, such as Imagine, of their next generation wireless service. These companies need to be supported in expanding their reach to more isolated rural homes, especially as capacity and existing equipment becomes available, and they need access to the NBI backhaul. Let us at least have one constructive outcome from today's debate.

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