Sir, – I write out of frustration, exasperation and desperation.
A businessman, I am forced to work from my car on main street Kinsale to access broadband via mobile device.
My neighbours and I, all business people, have to travel away from where we live to access the internet.
We often see each other parked on main street to answer an important email or send an important file, overcoming the distraction of revellers and busy pubs, praying the laptop battery will last a little longer.
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We’ve lived like this for years.
Our businesses demand that we are accessible around the clock, as so many do, so I have taken to sleeping in my office in Cork on weekdays so that I can stay connected. I have two children and this seriously impacts on family life.
In order to access broadband at my home in Sandycove, a village of 70 houses, we must first dial out on our telephones to access the less than 1 megabyte available such is the sorry state of the pre-war copper lines that serve our community.
This speed means no conference calls, or Skype, no file downloads, PDFs reports or video-conferencing. Uploading is out of the question.
My local government minister Jim Daly TD promised to help but nothing has happened.
We have pleaded, we have picketed and still nothing.
Being an entrepreneur in rural Ireland is tough, but our sitting TDs whose responsibility it is to support business are letting us down badly, with no hope on the horizon.
The Taoiseach speaks of Ireland 2040, maybe he can save us from Ireland 1940? – Yours, etc,
DANIEL CAREY,
Managing Director,
LIKE Communications Ltd,
Cork.