Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I hear the Deputy and have read that letter. I can see there is a personal story behind it of somebody who has moved home to their parents to save money for a house and then found they do not have the connection they need to run their business, and I understand that. It is not just to run a business because you need the Internet if you want to work from home, study from home or even just conduct your social life. It is absolutely essential. It is a utility. It is like providing water or electricity, so everybody needs to get it. We are in a roll-out period. Our plan is much more ambitious than those of other countries. I have talked to counterparts in other European countries and they are not providing fibre to every house.

People have options in every area and they must be investigated. The first question is whether there is somewhere nearby that has a broadband connection point. Is there somewhere like a GAA place that is offering a solution for somebody to come into the local village, sit down and get a desk for the day? If there is not, the Deputy can come to me and ask for a new BCP to be set up and we can investigate and look at that. The next question is whether there is fixed wireless access. There are fixed wireless access providers that put a mast on the roof and then the customer gets a connection. One can get an acceptable level of connection of something like 100 MB from those. A satellite connection can be used in most parts of Ireland and in many cases people can use 5G. Those are the correspondent's options as they wait the 16 months.

See this speech in context