Results 6,041-6,060 of 10,862 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: If the Chair might indulge me, and if it is agreeable to our guests, I would like to come in before the break because I have an oral parliamentary question in the House.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I appreciate the indulgence and I thank the witnesses for being here. To touch briefly on the REPowerEU plan, am I correct in saying that in response to Deputy Catherine Murphy it is essentially the evidence from the Department that no one here knows precisely why Ireland did not apply for this funding?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I assume Mr. Griffin will accept that this is concerning. The biomethane section of the REPowerEU budget alone has funding of €35 billion.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I think Mr. Cleary might be able to answer.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: In respect of the current opening, Mr. Cleary stated there is a budget of €20 billion.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: He went on to state that Ireland's potential take from that will be €89 million.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: The reports we have on the biomethane portion of REPowerEU suggest there was a budget of €35 billion and that Ireland had a potential funding stream of €800 million in capital funding. There is a discrepancy in that regard.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: Was the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform aware of a proposal prior to the April stream, which 25 of 27 states applied for? I appreciate we might get further information from Mr. Griffin later in the meeting. Was the Department aware of that proposal?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: Why will it be so low?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: We accounted for a little over 1% of the EU’s population before Brexit, so I assume we are higher than that now. Pro rata, that would seem to be a much lower proportion.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I fear we might be able to qualify, at least by some definitions, as less developed when it comes to renewable energy unless we get our act together very quickly.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I appreciate that. Turning back to the national broadband plan, it is a huge level of investment. How many farms have been passed to date? Is that figure available?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: The target for seven years is 54,000 farm premises.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: Am I correct in stating there are no annual milestones in respect of farm premises associated with the contract?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: Apart from the fact that farms have a particular need, because they are operational businesses, to be able to source high-speed broadband, such a target would be indicative because one of the fears this committee and others have expressed is that NBI is, perhaps, moving ahead with the low-hanging fruit, so to speak, such as clusters of dwellings and other areas where there might be large...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I am not suggesting we would do that. The contract and the associated publicity clearly outlined a target of 54,000 farms, so I presume there is a way of measuring whether that is being done. I am not suggesting NBI is bypassing the neighbours of farms, but this would be useful information to have.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: That is 7,000 of 54,000 premises, so it is not very high.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: That information is available and it could be shared. An answer to my next question might also need to be included in the note from our guests. Mr. Griffin referred to rural, semi-rural and suburban premises. Of the premises that have been passed to date, is there a breakdown of the numbers within each of those three categories?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: What is the current connectivity rate of premises that have been passed?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan (13 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I am not surprised there is a high uptake in Cavan-Monaghan, but a lot of people who have high-speed broadband passing by their homes have still not been connected. Has the Department or NBI carried out an assessment, whether through surveys or other methods, to identify why well over half of those premises that are being passed have not been connected?