Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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576. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the progress to date for each of the 41 action points made in the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce report published in December 2016 in which his Department has lead or joint responsibility for implementing following the third National Stakeholder Forum; if each such action point has been completed, not completed or is ongoing, respectively; and the revised deadlines for action points not delivered by the original timeframes set out in tabular form. [42987/19]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The Report of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce was published in December 2016 and included 40 actions to alleviate barriers to mobile phone reception and broadband access.  A Taskforce Implementation Group was established in early 2017 to oversee the delivery of the actions in the report. 

A Review of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce report was published on 21 February 2018, and provides a comprehensive progress report on all 40 of the actions included in the original report.  In addition, the Review presented the 2018 Work Programme of the Implementation Group, comprising 34 actions to be progressed during 2018.  Any relevant actions which were not completed or closed in 2017 were carried forward into the 2018 Work Programme. 

A Review of the 2018 Work Programme was published in February 2019.  This provides a progress report on the 2018 Work Programme, as well as setting out 35 actions for the Implementation Group to progress in 2019.  Again, any relevant actions which were not completed or closed in 2018 were carried forward into the 2019 Work Programme.

Each implementation review, as well as quarterly progress reports highlighting the status of each action, can be found on the Gov.ie website at: .  The most recent progress report, for Quarter 2 2019, was published on 9th July.  

The Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce structure is now in its third year of operation.  It continues to identify solutions to barriers to the roll out of telecommunications infrastructure and aims to improve mobile phone and broadband coverage nationwide.

The third National Stakeholder Forum was held in Dublin on 11th October and the discussions that took place at that event will form the basis of the future work programme of the Taskforce.