Irish Examiner view: Broadband rollout failures show ineptitude on grand scale

Gross error of privatising broadband has been exacerbated by unimaginable commercial and political ineptitude and indifference

There is neither logic nor even a smidgen of reality behind the fact that fewer than 900 premises out of 79,000 homes or businesses in Cork awaiting functioning highspeed broadband have been connected under the much-vaunted, multi-billion National Broadband Plan.

The pandemic has been blamed for many things, everything from expanding waistlines to building inflation undermining projects and long-fingering completion dates. It has also been blamed for reshaping airlines and lengthening already long queues for medical attention. There is a logic, and a scale, behind some of those unfortunate consequences.

However, there is neither logic nor even a smidgen of reality behind the fact that fewer than 900 premises out of 79,000 homes or businesses in Cork awaiting functioning highspeed broadband have been connected under the much-vaunted, multi-billion National Broadband Plan.