Flaws in high-speed broadband rollout must be addressed – Doherty

A Fine Gael Senator has called for a national review and audit of properties that fall between the commercial providers and National Broadband Ireland (NBI) when it comes to the rollout of high-speed broadband.

Senator Regina Doherty said, “The national broadband rollout has been broadly successful. I am proud that it was a Fine Gael Government that succeeded in getting it over the line and I commend those who have helped to deliver it.

“The NBP is crucially important to every property that it covers; every home, business, school, farm or GAA club. In fact, it is the biggest investment of its kind since rural electrification. However, with that being said, the rollout has not been without certain flaws.

“When we initiated the plan, there was a guarantee that any property that was not provided with high-speed broadband by a commercial operator would have that service delivered to them by NBI. There was a guarantee that everyone in Ireland would be able to avail of high-speed broadband; something that we all desperately require.

“My office is in Skerries in Dublin and yet I have a number of people on my own street who have informed me that neither commercial providers nor NBI have agreed to install high-speed broadband in their homes. We’ve gone back and forth, over and over, and we’ve discovered there are gaps in aspects of the delivery where nobody seems willing to provide that broadband on behalf of the State.

“It is clear even from NBI’s website that there are a number of homes hanging in the balance and are somehow excluded. They aren’t on country lanes or at forks in roads; they’re in our urban areas. They’re in North County Dublin, they’re in Cork and Limerick and Galway too.

“They are places where the broadband connection isn’t sufficiently good enough to be able to make the connection, either by commercial operators or NBI. As things stand, those homes will not be part of the overall contract that will allow us all to be part of the online world, and that is deeply unfair.

“The pandemic has given us an opportunity to gain confidence in going online; to work from home, to shop online, to contact our doctors, to hold meetings, and more. However, there are people who are being left behind, who have been given no indication as to when they can expect high-speed broadband to be extended to them.

“I am calling for a national review of homes that fall into this bracket, and for an audit to be conducted to find out what needs to be done by the State to ensure that everyone has access to high quality internet connection”, concluded Senator Doherty.