Broadband delivery deferred - A 12-year delay!

As if the looming knock-and-drag over refuse charges was not more than enough for Minister for Communications and the Environment Denis Naughten to deal with, he must now brace himself for an inevitable barrage of criticism over the latest delay in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) which he announced yesterday.

That the 2012 project intended to bring high-speed broadband to 542,000 rural sites has been beset by complication after complication is of no consolation to those who, after yesterday’s announcement, may have to wait until 2023 or 2024 to see any real progress.

That is an incredible delay — at least 12 years from conception to delivery — and may sound the death knell for businesses hanging on in the hope that they might, in the medium term, get a decent broadband connection to the world beyond their parish.