"NBI investors profit before a single home in Mayo is connected" - Mayo TD

A Mayo TD has criticised the National Broadband Plan for failing to meet targets, which has meant not a single premises has been connected in Mayo as the first major deadline of January 31 is reached.

Minister Eamon Ryan confirmed under questions from opposition last week that investors behind the project have already begun to profit through high-interest loans, and had recouped initial bidding costs.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh said: “The Department for Communication, Climate and the Environment has announced that in 14 counties, broadband is available for order or pre-order for some homes in the intervention area.

"Unfortunately, Mayo is not among the 14.

“Across the state, 544,000 premises are to be connected. The target had been for 115,000 homes to be connected by January 2022.

"This target was then reduced to 60,000 early this year.

"Now we are being told that 60,000 homes won’t be reach for ‘Pre-order’ until March.

“Pre-order means a three-month window in which a home will be connected. So essentially the reduced target has now been pushed by six months to June.

“The project is way behind schedule and Mayo seems to be one of the worst affected by these delays.

"People are being told that they will not be connected until 2025 or 2026. Given the very poor broadband coverage in Mayo, almost half of all homes and businesses are supposed to be connected under this plan.

“Missed targets frustrate people even more when they see government Minister confirming the so-called investors have already extracted €38 million for expenses incurred during the bidding process.

“We now know that despite assurances when this disastrous deal was signed, investors would at least be making a substantial equity investment to the project.

"It has now been confirmed that a large portion of that investment was in the form of expensive loans.

“Essentially, instead of putting money into the national broadband company, they loaded it with high interest debt.

“It is disingenuous for the government to claim that “equity investment” can mean equity or debt financing.

"There is a fundamental difference between the two that is obviously why investors chose to provide funding almost exclusively in this manner rather than in the form of equity.

“So while the people of Mayo have not seen a single premise to date connected under the broadband plan, investors are already recouping millions of euro, and interest is already accumulating that they will profit from at a later date.

“We are being drip fed information, and only under pressure from media and the opposition. Huge questions remain. They need to be addressed. And people deserve a transparent account of the details of this deal.”