I wish to raise an issue I have raised in the House on numerous occasions, which is the roll-out of rural broadband. One thing Covid did was show how important that infrastructure is for rural areas. For businesses to prosper and for people to be able to work from home, that roll-out is essential. I had a businessman on to me last week and it typifies what is happening on the ground. John Hanly's woollen mills employs 35 people in a rural area. He was told his connection would happen between January 2023 and December 2024 and the contractor might be back to him with a further delay to that timescale. This timescale is completely unacceptable. The roll-out of rural broadband must be accelerated. It is essential to allow business and people to operate in rural Ireland.

The national broadband plan, NBP, is an enormous undertaking. It is a €3 billion investment in rural Ireland. It is one I strongly support and one I fought to ensure would happen while I was Taoiseach. It is now very much under way. However, it takes time and the objective is, or at least was, to connect approximately 100,000 homes, farms and businesses every year but even at that rate, it is going to take between five and seven years. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to connect all homes, farms and businesses in the first or second year. It will take time. Unfortunately the plan is currently approximately six months behind schedule, principally due to the impact of the pandemic. While approximately 110,000 homes, farms and businesses were supposed to be connected this year, it is more likely to be closer to half that. The company does intend to catch up, however, and we are doing everything we can to help it do so in 2022 and 2023. There will be no additional cost to the taxpayer as a consequence of these delays.