National Broadband Plan roll out further delayed

CONCERNS over ‘further delays’ with the roll out of the National Broadband plan emerged this week Minister, Richard Bruton expected to announce that the roll out of the plan will not likely commence until 2020 at the earliest.

Louth TD Declan Breathnach said that delays to the implementation of the National Broadband Plan ‘will cause even more worry and concern in the rural communities up and down the county that are desperately in need of high speed broadband.’

Rural parts of Louth are among those areas where high speed broadband services are still not available to homes and businesses.

‘While we are awaiting the publication of Smyth report, it’s concerning that there are mixed messages coming from Government. We have seen leaks about the potential increase in costs and that the roll out plan including the timeline will now change significantly.’

He added that it had already been identified there was a problem with the procurement process.

“Fianna Fáil have identified flaws in the process, and raised them repeatedly with the Government since September 2017. At the time, we requested the Government to intervene. 14 months have now passed and we are now facing a nightmare scenario of a full collapse of the National Broadband Plan.’

What is now needed is straight talking from the Government. We need concrete assurances that, regardless of the current problems with the tendering process, the plan to connect a million people in 542,000 premises across rural Ireland is still a key priority for the Government. It must commit to commencing delivery without further procrastination and must provide the necessary funding to make it a reality.

The Taoiseach’s failure to address the concerns and problems raised by Fianna Fáil over the last 14 months is a matter of very serious concern.