Results 6,661-6,680 of 34,616 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: Part of Kildare is in my constituency, as it happens. My concern is that people who are not in the amber area are still having difficulty getting broadband. How many people are affected? It is one thing to say there are plans to get there but how many people outside the amber area are unable to get high-speed broadband service as we speak.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: Are they extending their current service availability into amber areas?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: Eir is a big outfit. People call us all the time and say Eir is providing broadband down the road from them. When they call Eir and quote the code, they are told they are in an amber area. It is up to the Department to provide for them. Eir is passing the buck to the Department. Eir knows that there will be a subsidy to provide broadband to that house. If it provides a connection now,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: I will reverse the question. Approximately how many high-speed broadband connections have been provided in each of the past few years? I have the quarterly report from the regulator.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: I am referring to delivery.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: Without getting to the figures, I will take a counter-intuitive approach. If the Department did not exist, the private sector would be ploughing ahead and signing customers up. Firms would not be refusing to go into the amber area.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: The copper network is not capable of taking the high-speed broadband.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: Very well. I call on the Department to make sure that Eir pays well for getting upgraded fibre to its network. It must not be let off the hook. Do the witnesses take my point? Some tens of thousands of people are being connected every year. Eir's representatives said that the firm could do more. It was not a commitment, but it might do so. That company has connected 300,000 premises....

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: What the witnesses are saying is that, without the rural broadband plan, all of these connections would come to a halt.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: I will ask the hard question then. How many properties are in the State? What is the overall figure?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: I am making the other argument. Some 1.9 million properties have been connected by the private sector without any subsidy. We probably did not think it would connect that many five years ago. I am playing the devil's advocate. The private sector has connected 1.9 million without a penny from the State. It now sees that the State is going to sign a massive cheque. Of course commercial...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: I know that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: Small numbers of connections have been made by some of the wireless providers.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: Everybody in Ireland accepts that. The question is what that figure is. It was 757,000 and has now reached 543,000. There could be scope for that 543,000 to be reduced without a State subsidy. We might end up providing a subsidy for houses that would be connected commercially if there was no subsidy. Does Mr. Griffin understand the question?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: I understand that. That is why I say that once somebody is listed in the amber area, the broadband industry will avoid them because firms know that a subsidy is coming. They are holding back. That is what I feel from my contact with the firms. Operators are delighted when a premises is in an amber area.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: We are nearly there. The public will think that the workmen installing the broadband will be from the same firm as the guy who will arrives at the door selling the product. Like the MANs, however, this is really the wholesale end of the business. The retailers will come and buy it from the wholesaler, which is this company.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: Will the witnesses explain that in a sentence for the public? Members of the public will see the truck coming to install rural broadband and think their houses will be connected in a week. However, that effort is only putting in the infrastructure, that is, it is the wholesale end of the business. The retail will come later.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: Or Ervia.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: That is good. Mr. Mulligan or someone else mentioned 500 m as the length of a cable. I cannot recall the exact sentence but at present, in rural areas there may be a box at one point and then another box at another point up the road but the distance to reach the house in between could be another 700 m or 800 m, by the time one gets to it via the driveway, laneway, or farm. Such rural...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Seán Fleming: I will allow the Deputy in, as I am finished now, but who pays for this?