Moynihan slams government’s inaction on rural broadband

CORK North West TD Michael Moynihan has harshly criticised the Government’s failure to deliver on successive broadband promises, and highlighted the difficulties faced by rural Ireland as a result of this inaction.

“In April 2015, Minister Alex White claimed that the construction of a universal broadband network would commence in 2016 and be completed by 2021 at the very latest. It’s now mid 2017, and the contract for the National Broadband network has not even been awarded yet. The current minister, Denis Naughten must know that he is in serious trouble as he is point blank refusing to even provide a deadline by which the contract will be finalised. As a result, at least 542,000 premises across the country have no clue when they might be able to access broadband services,” Deputy Moynihan said.

“This is absolutely appalling. High speed broadband is not a luxury, it is necessary for everyday life.”

Currently, there are over 7,800 areas in Cork that receive high speed broadband from private commercial providers. However, there are over 19,788 premises which will need government assistance in order to receive high speed broadband, with most of these being in rural areas.

“There are areas of North Cork that have little to no access to quality broadband. Why is Minister Naughten continuing to deprive rural business owners of the ability to expand and potentially employ new people. Also, does he not realise that broadband is crucial for school children to access online educational content?,” Deputy Moynihan said.