As the pandemic winds down, we hope, we can look back at a lot of things. During the pandemic, one of the key shifts in the country was towards working from home. The Tánaiste himself has acknowledged that it is one of the key changes that is most likely to last from this pandemic. For many in this State, there is a huge obstacle to working from home, which is either a very poor broadband connection from an existing provider, or no availability of broadband. Two years ago, we had a general election just before the National Broadband Plan, NBP, was announced to much fanfare. It contained many excellent aspirations. It was to cost €3 billion, of which the State was going to contribute €2.6 billion. We were going to see 538,000 homes connected, 90% of them by the end of 2024.

There was a specific target that by the end of this month 115,000 homes would have been passed, which means they would be able to avail of connection. Of course, we can bring a horse to water but we cannot make it drink. People may not want to connect. However, 115,000 people would be able to connect to broadband. The Business Post reported that this target was downgraded to 60,000 homes. By the end of December, only 33,000 homes had been passed. Where does the broadband plan now lie? Is the Tánaiste confident that it will be done? If so, when? How far behind are we? I appreciate the Tánaiste is going to say we had a pandemic but much of the work to be done was outdoor work. There was never a better time for digging up roads and working in quiet country areas.

My second and related question is one I have asked repeatedly for the past 12 months. A key commitment in the programme for Government is to give additional powers to ComReg to introduce administrative sanctions against companies that are not fulfilling their contracts. This is where people already, in name at least, have a broadband connection but it is not good and they are not able to use it and they contact their providers. Eir was terrible for a while and this is an issue I have raised. Where does it lie now? The Tánaiste specifically told us that he, along with the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, was drafting a Bill that would contain it. The Bill was to be introduced first of all after Christmas last year and then after Easter last year. Where is the Bill? It is of importance to facilitate people working from home, which has many public health benefits and many benefits for people's lives and for rural communities throughout the State.

I will bring the competition (amendment) Bill to Cabinet next Tuesday and I expect it to be published later in the week. It will give the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, and potentially ComReg, additional powers to impose administrative fines and make it easier to fine companies that are in breach of the rules and competition law and to give the agency more powers on interception and, in particular, surveillance. The legislation will go to Cabinet on Tuesday and will be published sometime next week.

With regard to the national broadband plan itself, National Broadband Ireland commenced connection to the new fibre network in January this year. More than 54,000 premises are available for order and pre-order in 21 counties. These are Carlow, Clare, Cavan, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Monaghan, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow. Despite the unprecedented challenges presented by the pandemic, National Broadband Ireland is making steady progress on the delivery of high-speed fibre broadband under the national broadband plan. The company has advised us that as of 7 January more than 154,000 premises are constructed or under construction, demonstrating that the project is reaching scale. National Broadband Ireland has confirmed that more than 5,000 premises have been connected as of 7 January. This figure is increasing week on week. To date, the level of connections are in line with projections and in some areas they are exceeding targets. For example, one area has seen a 25% uptake only after a few months of going live. It is the case that we are behind schedule but we can speed things up and we will do everything that we can to do so. This is a project I and the Government believe in. It can make a really big difference for rural Ireland and for becoming one of the only countries in the world to connect every farm and business to high-speed broadband, thus opening up possibilities for investment and home working that do not exist at present.

Those figures are somewhat at odds with some of the figures being reported. I hope the Government is verifying what it is being told by the persons and consortium behind the national broadband plan. We were all told the country would be largely connected by 2024. People can go online and type in their details and request an update as to when they will be connected and are being told it is anticipated they will be connected in 2025 or 2026. I appreciate that anecdotal evidence is easy to come by and is not very much good to anybody but I know of plenty of people. Is the plan on target? Is it over budget? The cost was to be €3 billion and now it is €5 billion. We have learned the person heading it up did so with an equity investment of €116,000. This is a lot of money but to head up a project of this size it is a very small personal commitment. Most of this is being funded by very high interest loans. If it goes belly up in the middle of it there will be many secured creditors and the Government will effectively have to bail it out. Is the Tánaiste able to say we will meet the connection and financial targets?

The figures I placed on the record of the Dáil were provided to me by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. I am sure it verifies them but I will check that it does so because it is important. It is fair to say we are behind target in the roll-out of the national broadband plan. We have not passed as many homes as had been anticipated. The figures I have indicate the numbers connected are doing quite well and are largely in line with the target. As the Deputy pointed out, we can pass premises but there is no obligation on them to connect. Estimates were made on how quickly people would connect and this appears to be happening in line with or better than target. We are behind in the number of premises passed. We can catch up and we intend to do so. With regard to the project, as far as I understand it is on budget because the way the contract is structured is that the company largely gets paid for the work it has done. It only gets the money when a premises is passed. If it runs behind schedule we pay less, if this makes any sense.