Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the Minister of State to the House today. There are a couple of points I want to raise with him. The first is the broadband connections that has been raised by colleagues in the House. In County Kildare, we have five at present, at Bigstone community hall, Crookstown education centre, Lullymore nature park and Rathmore National School and St. David's National School. These are very good and they are well used. The query I have is on whether that is the end of it. I have been trying to seek more information on this.

The conversation about remote working has been mentioned. A number of rural communities have asked me that question. I pay tribute to the broadband officers in each local authority. The one in Kildare has been particularly good to me every time I have had a query on these connections but I need to know whether that is the end of it. I brought it up previously at the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands of which I am a member. Obviously, I want to inform those rural communities that such a broadband connection is an option for them. As I said, in those five locations they have worked well but there are other rural areas in south Kildare that could benefit from this.

The conversation has rightly turned in the past number of days to remote working. These locations can assist that. Many people want to have the option, notwithstanding what the Government announced yesterday, to continue to work remotely. In some of the locations I deal with, it is just not possible to continue working remotely. One of the reasons the Government gave yesterday was about Internet quality. That is obviously a problem for so many people where they want to work remotely but it is simply not possible. The query for the Minister of State is on where we can go with that and on what can happen.

I must mention a couple of areas. In the Kilkea-Castledermot area, with which the Acting Chairperson will be familiar, people cannot get a mobile phone connection, never mind a broadband connection. I have raised this at the committee to which I referred earlier when NBI was in with us. It does not provide the peace of mind other Senators talked about here today. It does not provide peace of mind to them that when they go on to the NBI website they are told that it is due in 2023 or 2024. One of the biggest problems I have had - I raised this with the NBI officials when they were in on the day - is that when people see the erection of signs stating that the area is being surveyed and broadband is on the way, everybody gets excited about it but suddenly after the week of the survey, the vans have gone out of the area and that is it. There is no follow-up. I asked NBI to provide follow-up and to inform the people, as other Senators said today, that this is a process that has to be followed. There should be follow-up from the company. NBI should put up a sign after it leaves telling people about it. It should be going house-to-house in that area because they are there for a week. I have seen the vans. It brings great excitement and then, as a couple of Senators mentioned, it is raised with us in terms of what happens next. That is a significant issue and I raise it again today.

The blueways, which the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, his party and the Government have rolled out and which we have welcomed, are great. We need hot spots along those blueways for a number of reasons - obviously, for the tourists who will trail along them but, more importantly, for security. We have seen what has happened in the past number of weeks. We need to know that everybody is safe along those blueways. A couple of hot spots along those blueways would be very welcome. It is something NBI and the Government should consider.