Broadband Infrastructure
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-14
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Alan Dillon (FG), Mayo

Regarding the Deputy's constituents and residents who have raised concerns with her, and anyone living in non-intervention areas or areas that are served by commercial operators - the likes of Open Eir, SIRO and Virgin Media - if they cannot get access to greater than 30 Mbps of broadband service after contacting their retail service providers, they should raise queries with the Department through its website under "Contact Us". There is a section within the national broadband plan. It is important that we escalate this issue to commercial operators. It is important that people have a service, that issues be investigated and that their services be upgraded to meet their level of need. Indeed, the Commission for Communications Regulation provides an online broadband checker on its website. This shows availability, allowing people, especially those with an eircode, to check. We want to ensure that the information checker reflects the lived reality in the network operator areas. If you cannot work from home because you do not have adequate connectivity, that is a problem and something we want to fix. We want to work with private operators to do that. We want to hold them to account, especially those that are currently providing services, and ensure that they are upgrading those services.
We are working on measures to make the process of accessing existing infrastructure easier, ensuring that new housing developments are designed and facilitated with telecommunications connectivity to address any potential gigabit service challenges. We need to continue to hold private operators to account in regard to their current licences. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, and I will work with the Deputy on the specific black spot areas she has raised here today.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14