Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to highlight the lack of delivery on the part of Eir in rural Ireland. The people I represent are extremely disappointed with the customer service Eir is providing and its approach to the roll-out of the national broadband plan. I receive complaints daily about the way Eir treats its customers and the manner in which it is supposedly connecting rural Ireland to high-speed fibre broadband. Eir regularly shows a complete and utter disregard for the concerns of the ordinary person in rural Ireland, its customers. This cannot continue. We expect people to work, to study from home and to live in rural Ireland with ease and comfort, yet Eir continues to disregard and ignore the needs and requests of its customers without the slightest bit of concern for the best interests of rural Ireland, in spite its being awarded a contract worth €900 million.

I will provide a number of examples in my constituency that prove the way Eir is treating its customers. One woman in the Thurles area contacted me stating she had tried and failed on numerous occasions to cancel her landline contract with Eir. Every time she called customer service she was left on hold for up to an hour. She was not able to cancel her plan for months, despite her best efforts. Then Eir turned around and informed her that she owed a bill of over €100 for that period. Her line had given her problems, she got fed up trying to get it fixed, she tried to cancel her plan and she met roadblock after roadblock with Eir's customer service. This is not acceptable. It would be laughable if it were not so frustrating for people in rural areas. I have a constituent in Portroe who lives just off the main road to Ballina. She is a teacher and during the first lockdown she had to teach a number of her classes from her car as there was so little reception in her house. Eir has run the broadband route along the main road in this area but not down its back roads. This means that this woman's neighbours can access high-speed broadband, work from home, study from home and live comfortably in their homes but she and her family do not enjoy the same connection.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I, too, have been inundated with calls from my constituents about the poor state of broadband in County Carlow. This is especially true in rural parts of the county. Now more than ever, a robust Internet connection is required for all constituents working from home and also to prevent isolation in these challenging times. It is important for us to keep connected, and there is an urgency around this matter. There are parts of Carlow where people are really struggling to get basic-level Internet to carry out normal day-to-day tasks, and this needs to change. I welcomed the announcement in June of €32 million for broadband in Carlow, and I know that National Broadband Ireland has requested a licence from Carlow County Council for road openings and that it is now surveying parts of Bagenalstown, Borris, Tinnahinch, Myshall - that whole area. That is welcome but, again, there is the problem of communication and information. I see a website has been set up with a search tool to enable the public to check whether their premises are within the roll-out area and to show the dates for the areas being surveyed. The website can be updated and there are numbers people can ring. It is so important now that every house has broadband. If we have learnt anything from Covid-19, it is the importance of having good broadband for working from home, whether for students, teachers or anyone else. They need proper broadband. Is there a timescale as to when this work will start for Carlow? How long will it take? I would like an update for the people of Carlow in order that we know it will happen. My concern is that there will be problems; for example, that one house down a road will have broadband while half a mile down the road someone else might not have it. What can we do to make sure that every house gets broadband as soon as possible, that there are no mistakes, that there is no confusion and that anyone ringing up about his or her account gets the necessary service? It is all about service.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, for being here.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I thank Deputies Cahill and Murnane O'Connor. They have raised two slightly connected but separate issues. I will respond first to Deputy Cahill on Eir's shockingly poor customer response performance and the lady who he said was waiting for hours to try to get on to Eir to cancel a service, but was not able to do so and ended up landed with the bill. That is totally unsatisfactory and something the company will have to address. ComReg maintains a regular assessment of the delivery of service and how companies are meeting their objectives. Given the difficulty experienced and the fact that Deputy Cahill is hearing this from a number of constituents, it is something the company and the regulator, ComReg, will have to address.

In response to Deputy Murnane O'Connor, I will focus on the national broadband plan because it is a critical way of helping to overcome the problem and to deliver high broadband speeds to the entire country.

The plan sets out an intervention area which covers 1.1 million people, 544,000 premises and 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools. The objective is to pass premises in all counties, including County Carlow, within the first two years and more than 90% of premises in the State having access to high-speed broadband within the next four years.

The map of areas that will be covered is available on the www.broadband.gov.iewebsite. This shows which areas will be included as well as those targeted by commercial operations, such as Eir and SIRO, which is a joint venture between the ESB and Vodafone.

There are 28,291 premises in County Carlow of which 29%, or 8,158, will be provided with high-speed broadband through State-led intervention. The remaining 20,000 or so premises are in areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high-speed broadband services.

As Deputy Murnane O'Connor said, the national broadband plan intends to spend €32 million in County Carlow. As of 4 November, 122,000 premises across the country have been surveyed. In County Carlow, 4,889 have been surveyed so far where we are looking to see exactly how to get the fibre into the house. We map out the various poles or alignment to make it happen.

Surveys are complete in the areas the Deputy mentioned and in Downings, Ballymurphy, Coppenagh, Killerrig, Friarstown, Slaney Quarter and Kilmagarvoge. Surveys are currently under way in Muine Bheag, Borris, Ballinkillen, Garryhill, Knockdramagh, Drumphea, Coshill, Ballyfeanan, Kilcarraig, Gowlin, Ballon, Glynn, St. Mullin's, Hollybrook, Myshall, which the Deputy mentioned, Liselican and Cappawater. I hope I got my Carlow pronunciation right; it is a test.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I mentioned Myshall but I did not go through all of the names.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The next step is for National Broadband Ireland, NBI, to develop the network designs to deliver to the house. One does the survey first and then connects into the house. Work has already started in counties Cork, Galway, Limerick and Cavan and the fibre connection will be in the first houses in Carrigaline before the end of the year. From the end of January, retailers will be able to resell the service in those areas, so we will be up and running.

Further details on specific areas within County Carlow are available through the NBI website which provides a facility for any premises within the intervention area to register its interests. I encourage the Deputy to get constituents do so because people then get updates as to when they will get deployment in their houses.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to give a few more examples. A constituent of mine in Dolla recently built a new house. His next door neighbour has full broadband but my constituent was told he is in the amber zone and cannot get connected even though the fibre is only 100 m away.

In Holycross in my constituency, there are three houses together in a rural area. The houses on the left and right have high-speed broadband but the one in the middle is not yet connected even though technicians have called to that house three times.

It is the same story in Killenaule, Littleton and Horse and Jockey where people are trying to work from home and run businesses. Some of them only need 200 m of cable to be brought to their door to give them high-speed broadband but it is still not being delivered.

These are just some examples of the complaints made by constituents about how Eir is treating rural Ireland and its roll-out of the plan. People are extremely frustrated. Eir continues to ignore and disregard the complaints and requests of customers and it is currently getting away with it.

Rural broadband is essential infrastructure. We need delivery of it and Eir needs to up its game.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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As I said, I did not go through all the names because there are so many. I welcome this €32 million for broadband for County Carlow. It is essential now more than ever that we make sure the delivery is quick. I know from working with Carlow County Council that it will be fully supportive of this. I know the people of County Carlow will welcome this. We must make sure it is there for everybody because everybody deserves broadband. It will be part of life that we have a proper connection and a proper service. It is something we all require as part of our daily life now. I will not go on too much about it. Good communication is key here in working with residents, the GAA, schools or businesses to make sure it is done as soon as possible. It is more than welcome.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I thank both Deputies for raising the issue. County Tipperary is as much an important part of the national band plan as County Carlow or, indeed, any other county. I look forward to providing details of the same investment we are going to have to make in that county. That does not excuse or remove Eir from the necessity to start providing customer service in a way it is not and so that its reputation is not being damaged by the level of delay. As Deputy Cahill said, customers are finding it difficult to even make contact with the company.

I will say to both Deputies that the whole project is aimed at getting broadband connectivity to every single house in the country. The national broadband plan was set out as a seven-year project. We will see if we can shorten that. I believe that is possible, primarily, because the demand for the product now will make a real business case for National Broadband Ireland to connect as many houses as quickly as it can.

Post-Covid, this habit of remote working or working from home will be embedded into everyday society. We will, perhaps, see that rather than working or commuting five days a week people might commute three or four days a week, and those one or two days at home will be facilitated by having broadband. Having a complete national roll-out whereby no house or area is left behind facilitates it. The key measure of success will be not just getting to where broadband passes the house but with the householders taking it on. That will be an imperative now post-Covid. I hope that is the greatest stimulus to accelerating the roll-out.

In other areas we are relying on Eir, which is rolling out high-speed broadband in significant parts of rural Ireland. It is ahead of schedule on that. As Deputy Cahill said, it may have a problem with its customer service but the quality of the actual broadband when it is introduced is this fast-fibre high-speed connectivity.

I mentioned other providers. SIRO, for example, is another company rolling out high-speed broadband in other towns, villages and cities across the country. We have, therefore, an effective roll-out happening. I want to see it happen faster but that does not absolve the companies while operating it from making sure their customer relations are working effectively. I will pass on some of the Deputy's comments to the company when I meet it next because it is important that the experience of his constituents is heard.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Minister. In light of the debate we have just had, I will take the unusual step of saying that I am refusing, unfortunately, an inordinate number of complaints from Deputies from all around the country about the service their constituents have received from Eir. If I did not have my own constituency experience, I would find that surprising. Eir's customer service is appalling and it raises profound questions about whether ComReg is doing its job.