Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. It is good to see the recent statement from NBI on the progress in surveying homes in Donegal. I hope that in the coming months people will be able to experience the stated benefits of broadband in rural areas, from mobile working, e-learning and mobile banking, to digital tourism. It is important to recognise that progress is being made.However, for a plan of this magnitude, we really must dial back and look at the rate of progress and the meeting of deadlines. That is where the questions may be. Last December we were told by NBI CEO, Peter Hendrick, that only 3,335 homes and business had been connected to high-speed Internet under the national broadband plan since its roll-out 22 months ago. That figure has been updated to 5,400 as of 14 July, according to that statement. That is another 2,065 in the last month. We are quite far off track on the original goal of delivering high-speed broadband to more than 540,000 premises over the course of the seven-year project. In fact, NBI has not even set its annual goal for 2022, having failed to the reach the self-set goals for either of the two previous years of the roll-out. All in all, it is disheartening between the costs, tendering and withdrawals. By 2022 I hope most of us realise the importance of the role of the Internet. That importance is not going to diminish. It will only grow. We need to think of broadband access in the same way we think of roads and the provision of water, light and heat. The building of a robust, modern and future-proofed national broadband network is something the State must do for the benefit of the citizen and the economy and, to some degree, the core infrastructure must remain a public asset. When it comes to providers and competition, I am all for healthy competition in the market but the infrastructure must be there first to ensure coverage and to allow for it in the first place.

I have a few suggestions on what should be done. Our broadband infrastructure must be future-proofed. By this I mean roads, footpaths, etc., should, where needed, include installed ducting that will be carrier-neutral for purposes of supplying broadband services. Providing such infrastructure may afford revenue generation to pay for the investment over time. It should also reduce the amount of work, road openings and overall cost of supplying broadband services as well as encouraging more competition. While the broadband connection points are welcome they are limited in rural areas. We need to supply and allow communities to provide for themselves with community broadband projects. This model has been successful in other countries. ComReg has not specified a specific rate of functional Internet access. ComReg decided to specify that the data rate must not be less than 28.8 kilobits per second as a minimum data rate and an associated target that 94% of the installed telephone connections must be capable so supporting a minimum data rate of kilobits per second. This is a minimum data rate in that it does not preclude Eir from offering data rates that are faster than this. This needs to be raised to at least 2 megabytes. Even that is far too low in the current year but the infrastructure is so bad in places. It should be at least 10 at this stage.

There is another issue with regard to the cost of broadband, especially for the elderly. I wish to see the cost of broadband included in the household benefits package. Currently, that package includes electricity, gas, the television licence, etc. The telephone allowance is only available to people who are living alone and are getting the fuel allowance. That is €2.50 per week. Maybe the Government could incorporate the broadband costs for the elderly. I would appreciate it if that were something it could take up in next year's budget.

This is all of vital importance. We cannot penalise rural dwellers through our failure to provide necessary IT infrastructure. It is not fair for those who do not live in major cities to be left behind by the digital revolution. I thank the Minister of State for listening to my comments.