Results 1,621-1,640 of 1,185,398 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Eamon Scanlon OR speaker:Joan Burton OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Imelda Munster OR speaker:Joan Burton0 OR speaker:Patrick O'Donovan OR speaker:Cathal Crowe OR speaker:James Browne OR speaker:Pat Buckley OR speaker:Michael McGrath OR speaker:Denis Naughten OR speaker:Gerald Nash OR speaker:Seán Haughey OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Charlie McConalogue OR speaker:Paul McAuliffe OR speaker:Michael Lowry OR speaker:Michael Ring OR speaker:Joan Burton1 OR speaker:Heather Humphreys OR speaker:Colm Brophy OR speaker:Emer Higgins OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:Mark Ward OR speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett OR speaker:Seán Ó Fearghaíl OR speaker:Joan Collins OR speaker:Pippa Hackett OR speaker:Holly Cairns OR speaker:Bernard Durkan OR speaker:Seán Ó Fearghaíl4 OR speaker:Dessie Ellis OR speaker:Seán Ó Fearghaíl9 OR speaker:Michael Creed OR speaker:Alan Farrell OR speaker:Carol Nolan OR speaker:Joan Burton4 OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Brian Stanley OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:Seán Fleming OR speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan OR speaker:Brian Leddin OR speaker:Louise O'Reilly OR speaker:Gino Kenny)

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Business of Select Committee (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: The minutes of our previous committee meetings on 7 and 28 February and 26 June have been circulated to members. Are the imeachtaí agreed? Agreed.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: The purpose of this meeting is to consider the Supplementary Estimates for Public Services 2024 in respect of Vote 29 - Programme D - Environment, Climate and Communications. I remind members that the committee has no role in approving the Estimates. What we are doing constitutes an ongoing opportunity for the committee to examine departmental expenditure in order to make the process more...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Chair and the committee for this opportunity to present details of this Supplementary Estimate for my Department. This Supplementary Estimate is required to provide additional funding of €30 million for the national broadband plan because it will exceed its planned delivery for this year. Other elements of the Supplementary Estimate include: funding of €520 million...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: For the information of members, this meeting is scheduled to be short. There is a speaking list. I thank the Minister for coming in and outlining information. I was not aware of the stark fact that in the region of 4,200 homes are being connected every month.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: They are people who have subscribed to the service. About 10,000 homes are passed with fibre, so the fibre is going pass the kerbs outside those homes. The 4,200 homes are actually subscribing. The numbers will keep increasing. We expect that eventually 80% of people in rural Ireland will subscribe to the service.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: I thank the Minister of State for that welcome additional information. I call Deputy O'Rourke.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Deputy O'Rourke and I and Deputy Ó Murchú have worked together through ups and downs on this project over the past number of years. Deputy O'Rourke will remember that during the pandemic there were delays to the project. It eventually looked as though it would be eight months delayed compared with its original schedule. The project was signed in December 2019 and the contract...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: I thank Deputy O’Rourke. For my part, before I call in Deputy Feighan, I wish to say that it is fantastic to see this project working so quickly and efficiently. The additional information the Minister of State provided with regard to the number of homes that are being connected, at 10,000 per week-----

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Per month.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: Per month excuse me. It is a pretty astonishing number. It is fantastic to see. Arising from Deputy O'Rourke's contribution in respect of areas in urban environments where there are gaps, I am aware of a further gap. It might be a matter for ComReg but the Minister of State might have a view on it or it might have arisen before. There are a number of estates built in the noughties with...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: The country has been divided up into two areas: the intervention area where NBI operates and the non-intervention area, which is the urban areas which are commercially viable. We got approval from the European Commission to have NBI operate and be subsidised within the intervention area. If a person is not in that area, the NBI is not going to reach them. The NBI has to provide 100%; it...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: For an inferior service.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: For an inferior service. This is not just a problem in Ireland. Builders involved in residential developments around Europe have figured out that they can do a deal with somebody to supply the service. The Gigabit Infrastructure Act is European legislation that I have worked on in recent years. It has been passed and comes into effect in November of next year. It deals with precisely...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: Will that require transposition into Irish law?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: It is an Act, not a regulation. It is to be transposed. The deadline for transposition is November 2025. It should provide for that. About 81% of the country now has access to either fibre broadband or high-speed cable Internet. Only about 19% of people do not have that. That covers everybody in Ireland, both urban and rural. As that number reduces, the 10,000 a month, the political...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: That is very welcome information. I thank the Minister of State. What does the European Act envisage in the scenario where there is a notionally privately owned duct in a private estate? We need to bear in mind that these are not public estates. These are invariably apartment complexes where an arrangement was made and the builder has gone off the scene. It is a private management...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Typically, a duct is like a Wavin pipe. The Gigabit Infrastructure Act places a new obligation on the owners of that infrastructure to allow competitors to sublet parts of their infrastructure, in other words to allow their hardware to be put into the ducting.