Rural Ireland 'being let down badly' when it comes to broadband

Rural Ireland is being let down very badly when it comes to access to high-speed broadband, according to Mayo councillors.

Elected members of the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District received a presentation from commercial broadband company SIRO, which is a joint venture between ESB Group and Vodafone Ireland that provides an open-access fibre-to-home network.

SIRO’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Amanda Glancy outlined to councillors that they currently provide high-speed broadband to over 555,000 homes and businesses throughout 135 towns and cities in Ireland, with their goal of raising that to 700,000 by the end of 2026. She said a clear distinction must be made between their work and the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

SIRO’s Head of Projects, Damien Murray said they have already rolled out their programme in Castlebar, Ballina and Westport and plan to bring broadband to 1,544 homes and businesses in the Claremorris area.

Mayo Co Council’s Head of Broadband Danny O’Toole said he was excited about SIRO's work.

Fine Gael Cllr Tom Connolly said it was a good idea but it would also need to extend to rural areas.

Cllr Michael Burke said the presentation was very interesting and ESB should have been "on this from the start”. He also said he hopes the scheme will be extended to smaller towns and villages as “rural areas are being let down very badly”, adding that companies like Eir do not want to deliver fibre-optic broadband to rural areas because they believe it would not make financial sense.

“I was talking to Minister Patrick O’Donovan who lives down a side road in Limerick and he can’t get broadband down his road because it doesn’t make sense for them financially to do."

Fianna Fáil Cllr Damien Ryan believes the Government should subsidise companies like SIRO to make it more financially viable to bring broadband to rural areas.

“Covid showed us how important it is to have good broadband while working from home. People would sacrifice the quality of their road in order to have good broadband”, Cllr Ryan said. “The speed at times, especially with the weather the last few months, has been despicable.”

Cllr Gerry Murray said the State should never have privatised Eir and that there is a deficit when it comes to rural broadband. Mr O'Toole agreed on the latter point and said the NBP rollout was too slow.