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

Our national strategy is for everybody in Ireland to have gigabit Internet by 2028. On the current timelines, everybody in rural Ireland will have it by 2026. Our rural deployment is going well. I am responsible for broadband across the whole of Ireland and not just the intervention area. I need to make sure we are not leaving black-spot islands in our urban areas. Just because you are in an urban area, it does not mean you should get broadband two years later than in a rural area. With that in mind, I have been examining policy options for completing urban black spots. I am looking at the copper switch off plans ComReg has been examining and at the universal service obligation for broadband which I brought in in the communication regulations Bill recently. We will have to determine the regulatory mechanism we use to oblige broadband providers to provide their service to everybody so they do not leave cul-de-sacs uncompleted in urban areas. There will be a number of trials and pilots of different technologies to achieve that and we have to do it within state aid rules.

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