National Broadband Ireland off the pace to meet connections targets

NBI has passed 17,000 of the targetted 60,000 premises to date meaning it will have to make the network available to 43,000 by the turn of the year

National Broadband Ireland, headed by US businessman David McCourt, has been paid €132.3 million by the state to date, split between €42.5 million in 2020 and €89.8 million so far this year. Picture: Julien Behal

National Broadband Ireland has been paid hundreds of millions of euro to date under the state’s multi-billion-euro rural internet scheme despite connecting far fewer homes and businesses than required under its initial targets.

The €5.7 billion National Broadband Plan is well behind its initial rollout target of making the network available to 115,000 by the end of 2021 and will instead now aim to reach just 60,000 premises by the turn of the year.

NBI ...