Rural communities need broadband now, say Cllrs

It’s unacceptable that there is no broadband in the village of Castletown Geoghegan and other rural communities, a Westmeath county councillor says.

Speaking at the April meeting of the Mullingar Municipal District, Fine Gael's Cllr Andrew Duncan said that the lack of adequate broadband coverage is a “massive issue” in the affected communities.

Cllr Una D’Arcy said that the provision of adequate broadband is as important to today’s rural communities as the electrification programme was in the past.

The lack of adequate broadband in many parts of north Westmeath is preventing many small businesses from expanding, she said.

The Sinn Féin councillor also noted that there are people from the north Westmeath area with the skills to install the necessary infrastructure who have recently left the country to find work.

Cllr Paddy Hill said that many homeowners in north Westmeath have little or no mobile phone coverage, in addition to no broadband service.

Cllr Ken Glynn noted that many people living in the Ballinea and Gainstown areas have no broadband coverage.

“It’s a source of great frustration as some are literally two miles out the road from Mullingar,” he said.

According to the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources estimates, 40 percent of Westmeath’s 44,377 premises are situated in parts of the county not covered by commercial operators.

The department has pledged to provide every home in the country with minimum broadband speeds of 30Mps by the end of 2020.