Results 5,781-5,800 of 11,255 for speaker:Colm Burke

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2019: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: Everyone would agree with that but it is a case of making sure we have adequate precautions so we do not have an increased number of young people using e-cigarettes and moving on to cigarettes. That is what we need to be careful about in drafting this legislation.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: I thank our guests for their presentations. I know some people have already touched on our existing system from Eir, and I would like to as well. I am in Cork North-Central and we have a huge number of areas that will not receive an NBI service until 2026. I have one area where the pole is physically on the person's property, but Eir is not allowed to connect because the property is in the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: The point they are making to us is they are saying that they are not allowed to connect because it is under the NBP and therefore the other providers would not get the appropriate remuneration for doing that connection.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: Eir has advised us that it does not have capacity. On cost, the property it has connected is at a far greater distance than the property on which the pole is situated. In other words, the pole is situated at the entrance to the farmyard, but Eir will not connect the farmhouse. Yet, it can run the cable 200 yd down the road to connect another house. The argument consistently coming back to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: To take the example I spoke about, has NBI done an assessment of the number of properties that are in that scenario? Have we an estimate? In my experience, it would appear there are quite a large number within the amber area where there is capacity from existing providers.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: What is the timescale for when there will be some agreement with some of these providers?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: When Mr. Hendrick talks about doing a pilot, is he talking about a specific county or town? Are we talking about ten or 100 houses in a pilot scheme?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: Okay. I will move on to another issue. It relates to the workforce and the availability of people to carry out the work that needs to be carried out. Is NBI facing challenges in that area at present, in view of the fact that the whole construction industry is going at full speed and many other areas are having difficulties in getting people for jobs that are available? In looking at that...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: On meeting demands and the contractors NBI has, over the past 12 months those demands were not delivered on. Why does NBI now believe that these contractors can deliver within the time period?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: Apologies. What machinery has to be brought in? We have had two years now. Surely, we should have had adequate machinery in at this stage.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: Did we not have 14 months in which this could have been dealt with? Why is the problem only arising now?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: I thank the Chairman and I thank our guests for their presentations. I raised an issue this morning where Eir and other operators are providing services that are very close to the areas that are designated as amber. They are then not prepared to go into the amber area because they are saying that they are being restricted and that there has been very little engagement with them in trying to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: The kind of conversations that are occurring are that the residents meet the people who are out on the road doing the connection to one house. I have had a number of these incidents. The standard reply that they are getting from the employees of Eir is to contact their local politician who will sort it out. We are getting on directly to Eir, which is saying that this is in the amber area...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: I heard that this morning. I gave the example this morning that a cable is being run from a pole 200 yd down the road yet a house which is less than 25 yd from the pole will not be connected by the operator-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: -----is because the house that is closest to the pole is in the amber area and the other house is not.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: Where there is capacity, and in a great number of cases there is capacity, why has there not been engagement in respect of trying to resolve that issue?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: No, that is the case here.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: My question is whether there has been engagement with the other providers to try to resolve some of those issues. If we could get an additional 40,000 or 50,000 houses connected through that mechanism, would it not be worth going down that road of having that engagement?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: Moving on to the issue of hubs, it was admitted earlier that there is a delay in the roll-out in quite a number of areas. We have connected 200 schools. Because of Covid, many people now work from home. In my constituency, areas that are less than 5 miles from Cork city cannot get broadband, yet there are community facilities that, if a central hub was provided, would be of benefit to a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters (10 Feb 2022)

Colm Burke: I have been contacted in respect of three communities. In one parish, there are more than 900 children in primary school, which gives a sense of the number of people in the parish. About 50% houses in the parish do not have broadband connectivity. I am advised by Cork County Council that it has spent all the money it has received and it is not prepared to engage further in respect of...