Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald
Sinn Féin will move a Dáil motion next week seeking to stop the National Broadband Plan and to appoint ESB to deliver broadband to rural Ireland.
In a statement, the party’s president Mary Lou McDonald said:
“The National Broadband Plan is flawed and will not deliver what is needed.
“Micheál Martin says he wouldn’t sign this plan but he won’t do anything about it. This is typical Fianna Fáil – words but no action.
“Well, here’s a challenge to Micheál Martin and Fianna Fáil. Sinn Féin will move a private members motion in the Dáil which calls for the appointment of ESB to deliver high speed broadband to every home, farm and business in rural Ireland.
“This would ensure the infrastructure stays in public ownership, it would deliver value for money and, crucially, it would finally deliver high quality broadband for rural communities.
“It is time for Fianna Fáil to put up or shut up. They should support Sinn Féin’s motion.”
Sinn Féin to move Dáil motion to appoint ESB to deliver broadband to rural Ireland (Sinn Féin)
Earlier: Fibre Optics
I’m torn over this.
While I agree that the current NBP is bonkers and should be stopped. I don’t think it should be dumped on ESB (I’m assuming ESB Networks). Broadband isn’t their business.
Yeah but poles, wires, conduits connected to every premises in the country is. Well done MLM, emasculating the soldiers of destiny again.
Surely if it was that simple it would have worked before now, not just here, but in every country in the world? Sounds a bit like the Brexiters strategy for the nordy border – technology will sort it out, even though it has never been done anywhere before. Yet another useless political stud by the shinners. Why not move a motion asking for FF to scrap the broadband proposal instead of asking them to agree to getting the ESB involved? They know that FF won’t support such a useless motion but hope to score some points. Useless political sh##te that does nothing to solve the issue. BTW I think the current plan is nuts and should be scraped.
Esb have a significant fibre network and the expertise to deliver this. Actavo dont.
Back to the wall now Michael. Good.
Its hardly an urgent project now is it? A few farmers will have marginally slower access to timewasting social media and YouTube clips for a bit longer while the powers that be come up with another solution. What’s it been? less than a week before the 3 billion stupid quote came to light? MLM is a clown, in her statement its her usual red faced whinging like a child criticizing FF throughout the statement and then asking for their support in the last line? Newsflash , FF don’t take cues from baby killers who make national embarrassments of themselves in US Paddy’s day parades. Maybe ESB is a solution? But you don’t need the political wing of a violent sectarian organization shouting the odds. Again, its not an urgent issue, rural Ireland got on fine before 10000 meg a second 8K 3D porn browsing, they can just wait a little longer.
A great way to shut up the IRA, ahem, I mean Sinn Fein is to simply mention the IRA.
Regardless the merit of their contribution.
They haven’t gone away you know.
The balaclava slips.
Where’s the bodies?
Gerry is still the puppet master.
etc. etc.
yeah but what contribution? Big Mary’s statement is no more than an oppositional party rant with a nonsensical idiom tacked on the end. “put up or shut up”? .. Actions speak louder than words, Birds of a feather flock together,Costs an arm and a leg, It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, It takes one to know one, Rain on someone’s (paddy’s day) parade, Spill the beans, The devil is in the details, The elephant in the room, Jump on the bandwagon…….Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs….
There are poles and ducts all over the place, what’s the big deal, with fiber at prices
cheaper than copper, or the imitation thereof, we have never being told what Eir
are paying their friends in ACOME for Fiber, The ESB would serve the Irish people
better, if they employed their funds and resources in providing the broadband
network instead of foreign investments like power. stations in spain and elswhere
and some of their daft forays in erecting 400KV high tension line to wind farms
that are half the time are idle, who don’t pay anything to the ESB when off line
and the ESB providing the running reserve….Who is running the show ..Mikey
Mouse:
+ 1
From the way FG goes on, you’d think fibre was made of unicorn horns crafted by leprechauns.
It;s like the National Childrens Hospital, they get very upset when you point out we’re talking about foundations, walls, floors, roof, windows, doors.
And architects, lets not forget the VERY precious.
Light, space, glass, wonderful view across that level of the building while sitting on a pillow because- there are no comfortable seats. It didn’t sit (pun) with the concept obvs.
Admire the designer genius of this building while.hoping that the peak time three hours it took to get the poor craythur to Kilmainham is worth it.
Has been suggested before and makes sense, they have conduits going all over the country.
I just take exception to the word “Every”. There should be limits. Broadband to every town and village perhaps. But if someone chooses to live up a mountain, then perhaps they should pay to take it the last few kilometers, just like people building houses have to pay councils to be connected to waste water etc.
has anyone asked ESB if they can do this?
If SF where in power they wouldn’t ask, they’d TELL them. If you know what I(RA) mean…
SIRO (ESB / Vodafone) pulled out of the tender process in 2016 … it’s not as if we could force them to take up the task.
If they accidently broke a few of their own legs late one dark night they might change their minds though. Capish?
Harsh .. but true …
RTE are looking for a producer. You might fit the bill.
Scrap it.
Every spare cent should be spent on climate change mitigation.
Less than 12 years to avert climate catastrophe.
Why?
I’m personally looking forward to my wasteland warrior outfit and matching carnage.
Although it might be more Waterworld than Mad Max.
It should be scrapped. But if it has to go ahead the ESB would be better than the current plan at least.
I’m not an SF voter but fair play to them, they’re actually doing something. FF seem content to just give out about the government but do nothing these days, because they’re terrified of an election with their current poll figures.
Eir are already the main player in Ireland so what am I missing here? Force them to drop the extra packaging like phone lines or mobile deals, subsidise the remote extremes and bob’s your trans auntie.
You cant force a private company to do what you want
Yes you can, most of their service network is on public property
Actually it would be cheaper to buy out Eir than what they are at and just fill in the
missing geographical areas, in many cases the locals could do it themselves
as they did with Group Water Schemes, you swear stringing 12 mm cable
on poles was rocket science, a lot of this is racked up, is to create a vehicle that
will rescue the fortunes of one individual. We had all this before with Tony O’Reilly
and MMDS and the community groups and rural Ireland took him on and won
where is he now and his print mouthpieces, in fact the current mess in
telecommunications has a thing or two to do with his consortia’s previous
control of Eircom…….and remember all the adds on RTE 20 years ago
extolling the public to buy shares in Telecom Eireann…..who was responsible
for all of this….?
12 mm cable? Oh my.
MeHole Martin, once again doing his level best to collapse any increase in the Fianna Fail vote.
His blatant political hypocrisy will bury the FFer’s. Excellent! :)
I wonder how much of a retainer he gets off his boss Varadkar?
The ESB bid for this process and withdrew.
A whole host of contingency options were looked at by the government. You can see them here:
https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/dcb962-documents-relating-to-nbp/?referrer=/nbp
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/govieassets/8542/93ac7d7de409478b94dc855f94c79573.pdf
I propose we give it to local councils to do it. They have roads up to every house, could they not run it along the roads cheaper?