John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I echo many of Senator Paddy Burke's comments on the previous Government's foresight in proceeding with the national broadband plan roll-out. There are always reasons not to do things but a point comes when a decision has to be made to proceed. That said, as other colleagues noted, there is frustrations with the slowness of the roll-out in areas throughout the country. The Minister of State will have a sense of that.

In my home county of Waterford, 15,084 premises are due to be connected through the national broadband plan with an investment of €59 million. However, there is significant frustration with the speed of the roll-out. For example, I received an email from someone last September. The person wrote that they would love to get a reason for the continued delays in the national broadband roll-out in Waterford. They said that they had been informed ten months earlier that they would be connected by August. The website was subsequently updated to advise that it would be February to April 2022 but when they checked again, they were informed it would be August to October 2022. That is one example of dates being pushed out.

I have had a similar experience to that of Senator Doherty where areas that are perceived to be covered by the other commercial providers are not in the intervention area and are not being considered. Those people do not have broadband and they need to be included if they are not served by the existing players.

I will raise a matter that is not one for the Minister of State. I received a lovely email from the PR company that works for National Broadband Ireland during the week. It said that more than 6,300 premises in Waterford had been surveyed. It said that crews had started initial work on the buildout in townlands across Waterford including Kilmacow, Mullinavat, Ballyfacey, Glenmore, Ballycourdra, Kilmeaden and Mooncoin. Only one of those areas is in Waterford and all the rest are in Kilkenny, so there is clearly an issue there.