Government admits go-slow on rural broadband

Reliable internet will be still be a pipe dream for many rural households who are looking at 2020 at the earliest to get connected under the Government’s latest broadband initiative – with a date ten years out from now touted by some of the more “cynical” councillors.

A senior official in the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources who reiterated the Government’s commitment that all premises in the State will have access to high speed broadband regardless of location was widely derided at this week’s Galway County Council meeting.

Sean Griffin explained to the councillors meeting in Loughrea that after commercial companies invested €2.5 billion to supply 1.6m premises, 70% of the country would have access to broadband of a minimum of 30 Mbps on download by next year.

State intervention was required to get the remaining 30% connected along 100,000km of road network, which included villages with less than 900 premises, rural ribbon developments and one-off houses.

A map was published last November which indicated every building in the country which either had or would have broadband by 2016. An intervention strategy will be published midway through the year outlining what level of work is required to ensure 100% coverage.

Tenders will be sought to roll out the broadband network by December with plans to start the work next year.

“We expect it will be a fibre-based solution to ensure it’s an infrastructure that will last into the future…we expect it to start being rolled out by 2016 and completed by 2020,” said the civil servant.

But councillors scoffed at the department’s broadband plan as nothing more than electioneering ahead of an upcoming election.

Cllr James Charity (Ind) labelled it an attempt to renege on commitments made to 86 rural locations in the run up to last year’s local elections. His fellow independent Des Joyce remarked that rural Ireland could well be left until 2025 to have such a basic resource.

Cllr Sean Canney (Ind) said jobs in Headford would have to move to Galway if companies wanted to grow and remain competitive due to the lack of broadband. “Shame on us,” he exclaimed.

“The whole thing is a farce and ye’ve known it for the last five years,” fumed Cllr Seamus Walsh (FF), who accused the department of hiding behind regulations to delay the roll-out.

Cllr Noel Thomas (FF) said he had proof that companies were claiming to have coverage in an area and once people were locked into expensive contracts “boom it’s gone”.

Fine Gael Cllr Aidan Donohue said the education of children was being put at risk because they were not able to use their computers at home.

Sinn Féin Cllr Tom Healy said it was no wonder the project was “in the state it’s in” when one of the Government’s commercial partners was Eircom, which maintained ‘dial up’ broadband as long as possible for exhorbitant rates and did not invest in infrastructure upgrades.

Councillor Tim Broderick (Ind) said you might as well burn the document if it is subject to a cost benefit analysis, citing a case of a house being constantly flooded which is not getting State support as it did not meet the cost benefit criteria.

Mr Griffin said while he understood the frustration and cynicism of councillors, his department was going full steam ahead with the plan, which had to meet regulations about public procurement, State aid and public consultation.

“Our policy is to have a high speed broadband service to every premises in the country no matter where they are – we are single-mindedly dedicated to that. I understand completely the frustration and empathise.

“This is the biggest and most important infrastructure project in the country for the next 20 years. Please don’t be under any illusion we’re not committed to making it happen because we are.”