A notable rural achievement

The ongoing roll out of high-speed broadband can truly be described, using that most overused phrase, as a gamechanger. While still far from complete, the broadband infrastructure is already proving to be revolutionary in expanding economic and social opportunities in rural areas across the country. The move towards remote working, which many thought would be temporary, is enduring and allowing people to work from remote regions, where hitherto, they would have endured long commutes or relocation to urban domiciles. We are still only at the edge of what can be achieved through being instantly in communication with family and fellow work colleagues, not only in Ireland but globally. There is every reason to believe that in the coming years we can experience an economic revolution in rural Ireland through access to world-leading communications networks and networking, anywhere and at any time of the day or night. Take-up in some completed network regions has been lower than anticipated. This broadband roll-out is an extremely expensive endeavour and should be utilised to maximum effect. ‘Build it and they will come’ must be the mantra.
If there is a drawback, it is the vulnerability of the new broadband infrastructure, with wires strung along country roadsides being subjected to storms felling trees and branches onto those poles and fibre-filled cables. The fact that over the coming decade, thousands of ash trees will decay and fall, only adds to that physical vulnerability. It should not be beyond affordability or decisiveness to mitigate that risk by a planned strategy to remove all ash and, perhaps, other trees from rural roadsides, replacing them in abundance in hedgerows and spaces not contiguous to our vital transport, electrical and communications infrastructures.