CLARE TD, Joe Cooney (FG) has criticised “unacceptable delays and poor customer engagement” from eir, Vodafone and other National Broadband Ireland (NBI) providers in restoring fibre broadband services in the county since Storm Éowyn.
Customers in Clare have remained without fixed broadband since January 24th which according to Deputy Cooney “is causing significant disruption for small businesses and people who worked remotely”.
Areas of Clare still impacted at the time of going to print on Wednesday include Broadford, Scariff, Bodyke, Lahinch, Miltown Malbay, New Quay and Kilmaley.
Deputy Cooney added that the lengthy disruption to services raises the requirement for significant investment in Ireland’s rural broadband infrastructure to “future-proof” it against future storms.
Rural parts of East, West and North Clare have “a complete internet blackout”, he stated “with no indication of when services will be restored,” he said. “Communication between NBI service providers like eir and Vodafone and customers has not been forthcoming unlike with ESB Networks, which provides estimated times and dates for the restoration of power supplies in relevant locations. The delay in restoring services is further compounded by NBI seemingly being caught off-guard without having adequate plans and contractors in place to respond to the network outages”.
O’Callaghans Mills native Cooney continued, “The National Broadband Plan has been a huge success and has resulted in rural communities across Ireland being able to avail of high-speed broadband. However, the frailties in our national broadband infrastructure have been badly exposed in the same way as our electricity infrastructure has been during the recent storm”.
“Fibre has been deployed on more than one million poles, many of which have been in place for decades and which are susceptible to strong winds,” he explained. “The roll-out of fibre broadband across Ireland was a lost opportunity to future-proof the infrastructure, especially when you consider the €2.7 billion planned investment in its roll-out. I will be relaying the urgent requirement to come up with solutions to this problem, including the need to consider to placing fibre underground, where possible, with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications”.
“In the meantime, I am asking NBI to engage with the more than 50 broadband providers on its network to step up efforts to restore services and to engage with customers who have been provided with little or no information over the past twelve days,” Cooney concluded.
The Clare Echo has contacted Vodafone for comment on when their Clare customers can expect to have supply restored.
