Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for taking the time to deal with this matter which relates to an area at Courtbrack, which is less than 15 miles from Cork city and approximately four miles from Blarney. There are over 250 houses there but it has inadequate telephone lines and broadband, as well as insufficient access to mobile phone reception. There is a letter from Eircom, dated 15 April, which indicates the company will not do anything about this.

There are three old telephone exchanges servicing Courtbrack, with one at Dunoughmore to the west, one at Grenagh to the north and one at Blarney to the east. This area is at the end of the line for each of these exchanges. The problem is that over the past ten years there has been a number of new houses built, and there are over 250 families in the area. One housing estate includes more than 50 houses built over the past four to five years. Nobody has access to any service. The road runs along the River Shournagh and there were a number of serious accidents on a morning when roads were icy but nobody could access emergency services. It took quite a while before somebody could get access to communications, as mobile phones did not work in the area either. I ask that the issue be reviewed. Matehy is not far away and it has been included in the outline broadband roll-out launched in the past few weeks by the Minister but Courtbrack has been excluded.