Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Longford County Council and the local development group in Edgeworthstown have pioneered the development of the co:worx remote working hub in what was formerly the Ulster Bank premises in the County Longford town. It is a visionary €1 million plus project, which really found its niche as the pressures of Covid-19 kicked in and we realised the need for spaces and places to facilitate remote working and high-speed broadband in rural areas.

Next week, the project will be one of the finalists in the prestigious .IE digital town awards, which seek to promote awareness, knowledge, use and understanding of digital in Ireland by its citizens, business and communities. The awards highlight the benefits and possibilities of digital and celebrate the digital achievements of local towns, big and small, including Edgeworthstown. We are delighted to see that Edgeworthstown is one of the finalists in the medium town category this year as the town pushes ahead with its ambitious co:worx remote working hub.

The Minister would be mistaken for thinking that all is rosy and is probably wondering why I am eating up valuable Dáil time today with this success story. The reality is, however, that a major project in the county's second largest town, directly across the road from a new €3 million plus public library, which will open later this year, will not, in fact, have the high-speed broadband that the facility and its ultimate users will crave.

Essentially, the community needs a dedicated fibre broadband connection, and a separate connection for redundancy, for both the co:worx building and the new library, which will be located directly across the road. As part of the recent upgrade to the streetscape in Edgeworthstown, Longford County Council had the vision and foresight to include a 110 mm ducting network linking the two buildings. As all the good civil contractors will tell us, most of the heavy lifting has been done with regard to this project.

As I said earlier, this is the second largest town in County Longford, home to a number of leading industries and employers. While the local exchange has fibre broadband to the cabinet, there is, it seems, no provision for fibre to homes or businesses. The provision of a dedicated fibre connection is simply too costly for a start-up, and particularly a community project like co:worx.

We asked Eir to consider expediting the roll-out of its Ireland’s fibre network, IFN, to Edgeworthstown, which it is currently rolling out in nearby Longford. I am aware that Eir has made provision for a similar project in Abbeyshrule, where the project is a similar co-working space called The Yard Hub. There is real hope and expectation in Edgeworthstown, and within the local community, that the organisation charged with taking this to the next digital level will see the merit in these two projects, that is, the public library and the co:worx hub, and work with the local community to ensure that we have the high-speed broadband on which both these facilities will be dependent.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I thank Deputy Flaherty for raising this issue. I recognise how vital telecommunications services are to citizens for so many aspects of their daily lives including remote working, studying and staying in touch with family members. These services have proved essential since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and given the restrictions imposed nationally. Having local facilities such as libraries and hubs in place to facilitate digital access in towns and villages will be important in the gradual return to normality and economic recovery.

The provision of services in a liberalised market, however, is regulated by the independent regulator, the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg. I do not have a direct role in investment decisions. Eir is a private, commercial company and the decision to roll out broadband infrastructure is a matter for the management of the company.

That said, with regard to connectivity on a nationwide basis, the national broadband plan, NBP, is obviously of critical importance in ensuring high-speed connectivity. Work is under way on foot of the contract, which was signed with National Broadband Ireland, NBI, to roll out a high-speed network right across the country, including 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools.

The NBP network will offer those premises in the intervention area a high-speed broadband service of up to 500 Mbps from the outset. Construction will commence in all counties, including Longford, in the first two years and more than 90% of premises in the State will have access in the next four years. In County Longford, almost 5,000 premises have been passed by the Eir 300K roll-out in recent years. NBI is making steady progress on the delivery of the NBP. Design work is complete or ongoing in target townlands across the country. Since 25 January 2021, retailers have been able to resell the service to householders across the NBI network.

As regards the specific query raised by the Deputy, I understand that Longford County Council is currently in active discussions with Eir and with relevant Departments, including mine and the Department of Rural and Community Development, to determine how best to ensure improved digital and broadband access for Edgeworthstown, including for the start-up hub and the library, both of which are due to open towards the end of 2021. In the context of our economic recovery, and on the day after the launch of the national economic recovery plan, we must look to the future to support the full resumption of work and to get people back to work. It is hugely important that vibrant local partnership approaches such as those being taken in all local authority areas, including through the work of the local broadband officers, be supported in driving forward digital transformation at local level for the benefit of communities. Hubs such as the one planned for Edgeworthstown will help kick-start local economies all over Ireland and facilitate co-working, SMEs, start-ups and local job creation.

There may be an opportunity in this regard. The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, is particularly keen on the concept of hubs. I understand that the Co:worx hub in Edgeworthstown is a former Ulster Bank branch and I am sure that location would be familiar to her. What is happening in that town is exactly the sort of project at the centre of our new rural development strategy. Yesterday, it was announced that in excess of €60 million has been allocated for just these types of hubs in the new recovery and resilience plan. I will discuss with the Ministers for Rural and Community Development and Enterprise, Trade and Employment whose Department is responsible for that plan and how this particular project would fit within Government plans. It is exactly in tune with what we want to do in the recovery plan so we should do everything we can to support it. It looks like a good example of what we want.

Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I am delighted to see the Minister's enthusiasm for the project. I am also delighted that his Department is engaging with the project promoters and the county council to ensure the town, the hub and the library will get improved digital and broadband access, specific to the two projects that will come on stream towards the end of the year. I appreciate that Eir is a private company with investors' capital but we will all agree that it has been gifted the opportunity to develop our telecoms network, with the profits that will doubtlessly ensue. We have a very ambitious broadband plan and it is something we simply have to get right for future generations. It is very important that Eir is reminded of the need to work and engage with local communities. It is inconceivable that it cannot accommodate a public library worth over €3 million, which is soon to open, and such an innovative remote working hub in the county's second largest town. I am delighted that the Minister is aware of this project and enthused and engaged with it but we need to send a loud and clear message to Eir that it must engage with the project promoters and ensure they get the broadband they need. These are probably the two largest capital investments in the second largest town in the county in recent years and are worth more than €5 million to the local economy between them. It is critical that, when the doors open to these facilities towards the end of the year, both of them have high-speed broadband.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Based on the Deputy's earlier contribution, my understanding is that the local authority is looking at supporting ducting to connect the Eir network and that the local exchange is fibre-enabled. In a sense, this looks like a public-private partnership, in that Eir is a private company coming together with the library and the hub, which is on a former commercial premises. Supporting the local authority in getting that ducting to the building would make a lot of sense for the local authority. Going back to what I was saying earlier about the town centres first policy, we do not want historic buildings to fall into disrepair. We want them to be used to the maximum extent. We have seen in other hubs across the country, such as the Ludgate centre in Skibbereen, that they can bring a lot of economic activity to an area. I would be very supportive of any support my Department can give the local authority in getting that exchange connected or putting the fibre ducting in place to get it to the relevant buildings.