25th November 2014

ICSA rural development chairman Billy Gray says that the Government’s plan for the rollout of high-speed broadband is moving too slowly.

“Telling people in rural areas that they may have high-speed broadband by 2020 is simply not good enough,” said Mr. Gray. “Look how far technology has advanced in the last 5 years – if it continues to progress at that speed, huge swathes of rural Ireland will be left behind long before the Government’s plans come to fruition.”

“Rural-dwellers are fed up of empty promises on broadband,” he continued. “Other countries, many much larger and with more remote areas than ours are far ahead of us when it comes to broadband services. The Minister’s plan also leaves many questions unanswered, particularly in relation to costs and ownership of the network, and it still has to be approved by the European Union. People in rural areas who have poor broadband services or sometimes none at all need to see action, not plans.”