Broadband in Mayo is available at an appallingly low level and there is no-one to blame but the government who privatised Eircom says Cllr Keith Martin of Westport Town Council.
The Labour councillor says the lack of availability of broadband was laid bare by the Central Statistics Office report that access to a broadband internet connection in Mayo is only available to one in ten households.
“The importance of available broadband to the economy has been highlighted by the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland who are on record as stating that ‘affordable broadband is the key to combating questions of physical remoteness’
According to Cllr Martin “the government did not take any measures to ensure that Eircom’s new owners would ensure a steady roll out of Broadband, instead the government took the money and ran and the new owner’s stripped the company of any available asset to make their profit on the sale. The government profited, the new owners of Eircom profited but the people in rural Ireland paid for these profits.”
Cllr Martin says that the government has refused to tackle the issue of broadband availability in rural areas such as Mayo and has instead preferred to allow market forces deal with broadband rollout.
“This confirms what EU studies have consistently shown; that Ireland is languishing at the bottom of the European broadband league. We only have to look at the North of Ireland, which has 100% availability of Broadband and the last international benchmarking of broadband end user figures released by the OECD ranks Ireland in 24th place out of 30 states.”
According to Cllr Martin the government must create a Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband. This would mean accessibility to broadband networks will assume the same character as the presently understood expectation of universal access to the postal service or telephone network. The development of mechanisms for ensuring that a broadband USO is in place creates considerable potential for ensuring a widespread and universally accessible broadband network.
Cllr Martin concluded “I have written to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Mr. Eamon Ryan TD to highlight the disgraceful situation in Mayo and called upon him to implement a USO immediately.”
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