Rural Ireland being ‘let down very badly’ by lack of high-speed broadband, meeting hears

ELECTED representatives from the Claremorris-Swinford area have complained about the lack of broadband coverage in rural Mayo.

Members of the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District made their comments at their monthly meeting, where one said rural Ireland was being ‘let down very badly’.

Under the National Broadband Plan (NBP), the Government aims to provide every household in the country with fibre broadband.

The NBP will see €145 million spent on connecting over 37,000 premises in Mayo with broadband speed of a minimum of 30mbps by the end of 2026.

Danny O’Toole, Mayo County Council’s Broadband Officer, told councillors that the National Broadband Plan (NBP) was progressing ‘a lot slower than we’d like it’ in Mayo.

Councillors from across the ten-seat municipal area called for improved broadband connectivity, with some citing the possibility of remote working in rural areas.

Ballinrobe-based county councillor Michael Burke said that rural Ireland was being ‘let down very badly’ by the lack of broadband in rural areas.

Cllr Burke was speaking following a presentation from representatives from SIRO, a private company providing fibre broadband to thousands of Mayo households, mainly in urban areas.

“I listened to a [government] minister one night, telling me and a group of people – he lives down a side road outside Limerick…Patrick O’Donavan, and he can’t get broadband down the road – it’s about 200 metres down the road, because it doesn’t make sense financially for them [private companies] to deliver it,” said the Fine Gael councillor.

Cllr Patsy O’Brien said it was ‘sad and unfortunate’ that some areas were being left without broadband coverage.

“It’s terribly hard to explain to people in rural areas why this is happening,” the Independent councillor said.

Cllrs Richard Finn (Independent) and Damien Ryan (Fianna Fáil) both called for private companies to be given subsidies to roll out broadband coverage.

The multi-billion-euro project is being delivered through a combination of commercial enterprise and state intervention.

To date, NBI has received a state subsidy totalling over €550 million.

‘DESPICABLE’

CLLR Ryan described the fibre broadband speeds available in his locality ‘despicable’ as ‘deplorable’.

“People will sacrifice the quality of their road for a proper broadband service. That’s how essential and important it is in modern day living,” the Fianna Fáil councillor said.

Cllr Ryan said that ‘competition’ between different providers would enable quicker delivery of broadband in rural areas.

“If national government are serious about things, they need to provide a subsidy to companies like yourselves [SIRO] to actually deliver this service…or the people around this table will be talking about it in 20 years’ time,” added Cllr Ryan.

His fellow Fianna Fail councillor John Caulfield said councillors were ‘getting it in the neck all time’ from constituents regarding rural broadband.

Charlestown-based county councillor Gerry Murray said some companies had left rural Ireland due to poor broadband speeds.

Damien Murray, SIRO’s Head of Projects told councillors that it ‘would not make any commercial sense’ for SIRO to compete with companies installing broadband in NBI intervention areas.

Mr Murray said SIRO determined the viability of an area by the number of premises, rather than its population.

The company is due to complete the second phase of its broadband rollout in Mayo by the end of 2026.

Amanda Glancy, Director of Corporate Affairs with SIRO, said the company would consider rolling out a third phase in Mayo in areas not already covered by broadband.