Decent broadband vital for those working from home, says Duncan

(Above) Cllr Andrew Duncan.

The Covid-19 pandemic has “accelerated the natural evolution of how and where people work” and highlighted the need for high speed broadband across the county.

That's according to Cllr Andrew Duncan, an auctioneer by profession, who says that due to large number of people now working from home broadband availability is the first question asked by most would-be house buyers.

The pandemic has brought forward the “natural evolution” towards working from home by “multiple years”, the Fine Gael man said.

Local estate agents have reported a marked increase in the number of inquiries from people currently living and working in the greater Dublin area since the start of the pandemic, primarily due to the fact that many companies are now offering their formerly office based staff the option of working from home indefinitely.

Speaking at the October meeting of Westmeath County Council, Cllr Duncan said that people's priorities have changed in recent months.

“Instead of working from a large warehouse in an industrial estate in Dublin, people now want to work from a 4-bed semi in Mullingar. I have no doubt that this is where we are heading.”

Cllr Aoife Davitt said that pandemic has highlighted the importance of having a good broadband connection and that currently the provision of braodband in many areas is “incoherent” and “ad hoc”.

She said that broadband services in Westmeath “need to be up to scratch”.

Although the Mullingar area is in the middle of the country, there are parts of rural Mayo and Kerry with far better broadband speeds, she said.

Cllr Denis Leonard said that at present broadband coverage in many rural areas is “patchy” to “non-existent” and this is something that needs to be addressed quickly as part of the National Broadband Strategy.

“It will not just support business, but also medical facilities; schools are cying out for this type of connectivity and if we are going to treat all of the children of the national equally we are going to make sure this happens.”

Cllr Frankie Keena said that if the government wants to support rural communities and rural businesses it is vitally important that broadband is rolled out to every part of Westmeath.