Future-proofing Irish infrastructure to be discussed by taskforce

Progress in future-proofing infrastructure for the development of mobile and broadband technologies will be discussed later.

The Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce will meet for the eighth time.

It was set up to address telecoms deficits in rural Ireland.

This latest meeting comes amid continuing controversy over the rollout of the National Broadband Plan.

Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development, Sean Canney, chairs an implementation group.

He says facilities are in place along new motorways for the rollout of future technologies:

"If you take the motorway from Kilcock all the way down to Galway or if you take the motorway from Tuam all the way to Limerick and beyond, we have additional underground pipework laid along that road to take any future connections that may come."

This "may relate to 5G, autonomous cars anything that will come in the future so we don't have to dig up these roads," Minister Canney added.