'Broadband service in Co Longford must be improved for once and for all'

The bugbear in south Longford that is broadband was brought to the fore once again during a recent meeting of Longford Co Council. 

Cllr Paul Ross (FG) called on the local authority to write to Ministers Heather Humphries and Denis Naughten, in relation to what the local area representative in Legan described as “the urgent need to roll out the National Broadband Plan in Co Longford”. 

He added, “Let Longford be the first county to start the rollout on this”. 

The broadband issues in Cllr Ross’ electoral area were highlighted recently when it emerged that Legan had the poorest broadband speed in the country. 

“The old chestnut broadband,” sighed Cllr Ross as he pointed to the difficulties not just in south Longford but across the entire county, during the meeting in Abbeyshrule last month.  

“With so many services on line now, it really is imperative that our broadband is improved in Co Longford once and for all.

“Longford should be the first county to benefit from the National Broadband Plan.” 

Meanwhile, the issues in Lanesboro were also highlighted. 

Cllr Gerald Farrell (FG) said that the time had come for Longford Co Council to “really push this issue”. 

“Us councillors - as a team - and Longford Co Council need to push this,” he continued before pointing out that the situation was causing nothing but frustration among business people and householders. 

“People are coming home from work in the evenings and the internet doesn’t work; business people are trying to upload orders or send invoices and they have to wait half the day for the process to complete - it really is so frustrating for people.”

Local area representative in Dromard, Cllr John Duffy (FG) then told the meeting that there were lots of issues with broadband in north Longford too. 

“There are numerous black spots and it should be our priority to get the broadband service up and running efficiently,” he added. 

“People are actually moving to the cities because the broadband service is so poor in rural Ireland.” 

 Senior Engineer Tom Murtagh then told the meeting that an action group had been established in respect of the National Broadband Plan.

“The aim is to get high speed broadband to every part of Ireland,” he added. 

“Twenty black spots have been identified in Co Longford and we will be meeting with the Minister shortly to discuss the matter further.”