It has been claimed that Noel Dempsey plans to scrap the Group Broadband Scheme after having invested more than 5M Euros in in the scheme over the last two years.

Currently around 15% of the country (mostly in rural areas) cannot receive broadband due to the fact that telecom operators consider it not viable to set up infrastructure and services in such locations. Eircom estimates it could cost up to €70M to fix this deficit.

The scrapping of the Group Broadband Scheme will leave businesses and consumers in rural areas with an even smaller chance of being able to subscribe to broadband in the near future.

There have been discussions about the replacement of the scheme by a new programme involving private sector players that will be up and running in two and a half years.