Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy English. I fully support this motion and thank Senator Currie for the work she has done on this important issue. It is important to acknowledge that the national broadband plan was signed off on by Fine Gael despite opposition from all sides at the time. It is impossible to envisage any vibrant future for Ireland without broadband at its heart. Our vision as a party at the time was to enable new ways of working and to exploit the significant benefits that remote working offers to each citizen and to society in general. It is the largest project undertaken by the State since rural electrification, and we all know from speaking to our parents how important that was at the time.

We placed a significant emphasis on remote and flexible working in our general election manifesto. The Government has advanced this policy by publishing a remote working strategy and increasing investment to provide hubs. We also have proposals to introduce tax expenses and allowances for changes to help those who make this choice. Another significant step was the funding provided by the Department of Rural and Community Development in 2017, with €42,000 for each local authority to appoint a local broadband officer. In my own county, the local broadband officer, Christine Collins, has been proactive with the establishment of broadband connection points and WiFi4EU being established in town centres. It was the first local authority to introduce eduroam Wi-Fi hotspots to support local students and researchers. A number of schools have been connected, with a commitment to accelerate this plan so that all schools are connected by the end of 2020. I welcome the announcement by National Broadband Ireland last week that all households, more than 8,500, will be connected by June 2022.

Remote working hinges on having a proper broadband service.We need to address the issue whereby some providers are advertising services that can be accessed from a mobile signal and looking for new customers while their existing customers are not getting a proper service and are paying a full price. I got an email from a friend of mine who works for the Department of Social Protection. He is based in Dublin but has been working from home. His work for the past 12 months has related to the pandemic unemployment payment. He asked whether if a person goes into a store and sees a damaged or faulty item, he or she would be prepared to pay the full price or would one look for a properly functioning item? That is the case at the minute. Some people are paying the full price for a service which is not good enough and has been wrongly advertised.

I welcome the work that has been done by a couple of voluntary committees in my county to provide hubs, including the Co:worx building in Edgeworthstown, which was an old Ulster Bank building purchased by the local authority in conjunction with a local voluntary group to develop a hub that is linked to Athlone Institute of Technology. We now have a situation where some of the private providers are looking for more than €20,000 per year to provide 1 Gb of fibre. The Government needs to look at that. Excessive costs are being imposed on the voluntary organisations that are putting these projects in place. I also wish to refer to the Yard Hub, a collaboration between Longford County Council and Waterways Ireland in Abbeyshrule, which is well known as one of the tidiest villages in the country. Funding has been put in place through the rural development fund to provide a hub and they now have a significant issue about not getting a proper, dedicated fibre line. It is an issue they have taken up with Eir.

I ask the Minister of State to take those two points on board. It will be difficult to fully deliver those two significant infrastructural projects in the county because companies are looking for excess funding while another company is not prepared to put in the infrastructure to make the projects a reality. A national remote working strategy will be of significant benefit to our county. It will show that our county is a great place to live and work, with opportunities and great people.