The roll-out of the national broadband plan needs to be seriously ramped up and pushed up a gear in the coming year. We are drifting towards a risk of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory if we do not capitalise on the opportunities presented by remote and hybrid working throughout our rural communities. We expect more than 4,800 households to be connected in townlands around Castlebar and Ballina before the first quarter of 2022. I understand this significant first step from Mayo is facing additional delays. This is simply not acceptable. We need to escalate dramatically the prioritisation of broadband roll-out in government and get connections live in counties so people can feel that good broadband connectivity is becoming more of a reality for them. In outdoor advertising as well as in engagement with roadshows throughout the county, National Broadband Ireland states high-speed broadband has arrived. This is completely untrue and equates to false advertising. It is only adding insult to injury and frustrating people. Will the Minister provide an update on the roll-out of the national broadband programme in Mayo?

The national broadband plan is one of the most ambitious rural broadband plans in the world. I have spoken to Ministers from throughout Europe and nobody is trying to connect every rural home, business and farm to fibre broadband. I expect that by the end of this month, between 50,000 and 60,000 homes in the intervention area will be able to order or preorder fibre broadband to their house for delivery.

There is fibre broadband construction for 121,000 homes at the moment, and in the past 12 months, ComReg's figures show that 120,000 Irish homes had broadband fibre connections brought into their homes, which is a 50% increase on the number that was there a year before and a 50% increase again on the numbers that were there two years ago. We have a situation where very large providers are building fibre broadband to the home at speed and as fast as possibly can be done.