New €33million high speed broadband fund for Louth

A €33 million fund to deliver high-speed broadband to Louth was announced in he last week.

Cllr. John McGahon confirmed the funding, saying it was a ‘a landmark day for Louth,’ with the government signing a contract for the National Broadband Plan, which will see investment of €33 Million to bring high-speed broadband to 8,243 homes across Louth.

‘ The National Broadband Plan is the Government’s plan to rollout high speed broadband to the 1.1 million people living and working in the nearly 540,000 premises nationally, including 100,000 businesses and farms, and over 600 schools, where commercial operators will not commit to deliver the service.’

Cllr. McGahon continued: ‘ The work will start immediately, with roll-out of broadband within eight weeks of today’s contract signing. Over 90% of premises in the State will have access to high speed broadband within four years.’

He added: ‘Quite simply this means rural communities in Louth will not be left behind.

All of rural Ireland will get the same access to opportunities offered by high-speed broadband as those in urban areas.’

As an initial step, the Government has published a list of approximately 300 community centres, schools, library hubs and local GAA halls in every county that will be connected to high speed broadband during 2020, to enable communities to quickly get free public access to high speed broadband.

In Louth the locations are: Annaghminnan Rovers Gaa Club, Pairc Annaghminnon, Newtown; Clogherhead, Harbour Road, Clogher; Killany

Gaa Club, Killany Community Centre, Killanny; Mattock Rangers GAA Club, Mattock Rangers Community Centre, School Lane, Collon; Port Beach, Mitchelstown, Louth; Saint Enda’s National School, Killanny; Stephenstown, Knockattin, Dundalk, Co. Louth; Templetown Beach, Templetown, Cooley, Louth and ;Walshestown National School, Walshestown, Clogherhead.

Cllr. John McGahon added: ‘ The ultimate goal here is to deliver high-speed broadband to homes and businesses all across the country. The delivery of high-speed broadband will be hugely beneficial to economic development and job creation in Louth.

‘It will open up a whole range of possibilities including: flexible and remote working; smart health with online GP and nursing services and medical monitoring; cloud-based services and connected devices; smart farming opportunities; digital learning; and reliable electronic payments and bookings for businesses.

‘We want to ensure that people who wish to live and work in Louth are supported in doing so.’