I want to raise with the Taoiseach today the very important issue of the collapse of the repair and maintenance of service to Eir customers in south and west Kerry. I am inundated with calls from customers. There was a time when we had excellent repair and maintenance cover based at the Cahersiveen depot, which ceased in July 2021 when the last customer service technician retired. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were up to 30 technicians based in the Cahersiveen depot. They were excellent people who gave great service, with people such as Tom O'Shea who gave 46 years of loyal service, Dónal Clifford, Dave Fenton, Dermot Corkery and, in west Cork and west Kerry, Jim McCarthy. These people retired but were not replaced. They had local expertise, knowledge and experience and knew their customers and the terrain. Unfortunately, upon their retirement, they have not been replaced.

I know every last inch of the rugged beautiful coastline from Kenmare down through Sneem, Castlecove, Caherdaniel, Waterville, down into Portmagee, Ballinskelligs, over onto Valentia Island, up through Kells Bay and on over into Killorglin. I know every last inch of it, but unfortunately the Eir customers in that area are not getting the service they should have. I am asking the Taoiseach and the Government to intervene with Eir and to put people working on the ground. We need maintenance and repair people. The rugged coastline I have outlined to the House is beautiful but it gets a battering from the weather, which is why the poles, wires and whole service need to maintained.

I pay a very special thanks to the operations manager, Mr. Pat O’Sullivan, who always worked so diligently on behalf of all the customers and all of the other Eir staff, but they need help and people on the ground to carry out the basic maintenance that is required. Connectivity is so important and the service is so vital in the areas I am talking about because they are predominantly rural areas. Whether it is going up into places like Glencar or into the Bridia Valley or Cloon Lake, all of these people need service. Some of them are possibly getting a little bit older, are vulnerable and want to have their landline. Many of these people do not have a proper mobile service, and that is why it is so important.

It might be asked, when it is a company in the way it is, in that it is not semi-State, why a person would be raising it with the Taoiseach. I will tell him why. It is because these people, some of whom are pensioners, are all taxpayers, workers, farmers and people we are here to represent. Because of it being such a serious issue, that is why I wanted to bring it to the floor of the Dáil, why I want the Taoiseach to take it on board and why I want him to know about the problem that is there. I am asking him in a very humble way if he will contact Eir, let it know the issue was raised here today and let it know it is only common sense that when there is a service, maintenance people are needed to attend to the repairs and keep things right.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and suggest that, given his poetic elegance, by the time I sit down, Eir will have heard this has been raised in Leinster House. I appreciate the seriousness of the matter because connectivity is everything today in the modern era for work, education and quality of life.

Eir has announced, as part of its €1 billion capital investment programme, that it plans to invest €500 million to expand its Irish fibre network to some 1.4 million premises in urban areas. In August, Eir announced plans to expand its gigabit fibre network roll-out to a further 200,000 premises, bringing its planned deployment to 1.6 million premises. This includes all towns and villages across Kerry that are not part of the Eir fibre broadband roll-out. More than 28,000 premises in Kerry have been passed to date under Eir’s programme. Meanwhile, in early October 2021, SIRO announced phase 2 of its fibre broadband network roll-out. This includes extensive plans for the main towns and villages in Kerry. To date, SIRO has passed in excess of 16,000 homes and businesses as part of its Kerry fibre broadband roll-out programme. I will talk to both companies to ensure the work continues.

The roll-out of the national broadband plan in Kerry is proceeding. This State-led intervention will be delivered, as the Deputy is aware, by National Broadband Ireland, NBI, under a contract to roll out high-speed, future-proofed broadband network within the intervention area. This area covers 1.1 million people living and working in more than 544,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms, and 679 schools.

For the interest of the Deputy, I am advised by National Broadband Ireland that, at 31 January 2022, more than 295,000 premises have been surveyed nationally or have surveys under way, with in excess of 154,000 premises constructed or under construction across all counties, including Kerry. There are 27,183 premises in the intervention area in County Kerry, of which more than 17,500 have been surveyed by NBI. Surveying is completed in the deployment areas of Dingle, Rathmore, and Kilgarvan. Pre-works are under way in the deployment areas of Ballyheigue and Castlegregory and main works are under way in the deployment areas of Tralee and Killarney, with in excess of 5,000 premises now available for order or pre-order and more than 8,800 premises progressing well through construction. Further details are available on specific areas within County Kerry through the commercial operator websites and the NBI website, which provides a facility for any premises to query availability in this area.

The broadband connection points, which are a key element of the NBP in providing high-speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll-out of the fibre to the home network, in the Kerry context are now installed at Gneeveguilla, Tureencahill, Valentia Cable Station, St Fiachna’s Church, Old Railway Station Heritage Centre and community spaces in Cullenagh, Kielduff Community Centre, Chapeltown, Killeenliath, Kilmoyley Community Centre, Black Valley in Our Lady of the Valley Church, and I could go on. There is also a long list where the NBI has installed connectivity for national schools, but the list is too long, although it is quite extensive as well.

That answer from the Taoiseach is brilliant and excellent if I had asked a different question.

Unfortunately, however, the issue I am raising is telephone lines, wires hanging down and no noise when people pick up the telephone. That is the question I am raising today and it is the issue I want the Taoiseach to take back to Eir. I wish the CEO of Eir very well. The person is retiring and that person saw fit to bring in a new trainee to be trained for the role of CEO of the company. It is recognised at the higher end that a person should be trained in, but technicians at ground level who keep the service going do not train in somebody beneath them. It is done at the top, but it is not done where it really matters. I am asking the company to recognise this. When it was a semi-State company up until 1999 it was one of the best in the world.

Yes.

The Deputy remembers that. Today, I remember people such as Mr. Albert Reynolds, a highly respectable politician who did great work. I remember him for his work. It went from the Department of Posts and Telegraphs to Telecom Éireann and then from Eircom to Eir and one of the problems we have is the neglect on the ground. Privatisation was not a friend to this company.

Thank you very much, Deputy. You are out of time.

It resulted in the death knell for the service in rural areas as far as I can see. Let the message go out loud and clear that Eir must pull up its socks and put people out on the ground working door to door to keep the service and connectivity going. I thank the Taoiseach for this opportunity.

Again, I thank the Deputy. As I said, we will engage with Eir and the other companies with regard to provision. The world has changed. The Deputy is correct to point out that the late Albert Reynolds was the pioneer in communications-----

There was a telephone in every house within a month.

-----and bringing Ireland up to a level of communications capacity that was instrumental in foreign direct investment coming into the country as well.

It took a year to get it fixed.

It is very important, therefore, that we get it right with broadband and that we get a high level and high quality of connectivity. That means investment from both the private sector and the State, which is investing very significantly in the intervention areas that are not covered by private sector companies. Those areas are now earmarked in the national broadband plan. The State is putting in a lot of investment, as the Deputy knows. I will engage with the companies and I will raise the issues the Deputy raised this morning.