Galway East TD and Minister for Digital Development Seán Canney has congratulated Galway County Council on securing €45,000 in vouchers to install public WiFi hotspots around the county.
The awards to Galway are part of a European Union initiative which has seen Ireland receive a total of €1.2 million over two funding rounds.
“This is great news for Galway county,” Minister Canney said. “It is important that, at the same time as we roll out the National Broadband Plan, we are providing essential WiFi hotspots in public places.
“The European Commission has confirmed that Ireland has secured 22 vouchers worth €330,000 under the current round of funding, which is a great result.
“Ireland was awarded 62 vouchers amounting to €930,000 in 2018 so this announcement means that €1.26 million has been awarded to Irish local authorities in total.
“This is a great opportunity for communities and will be a tremendous help in providing a state of the art network of free WiFi hotspots in public places.”
Under the WiFI4EU initiative, each local authority can apply for a maximum of four vouchers, each worth €15,000, over the lifetime of the scheme. Galway County received three vouchers under the current funding round.
“Seventeen of the 31 local authorities have now secured all of the vouchers available to them and the remaining 14 local authorities are well on their way to doing the same.
“This excellent outcome is thanks to the efforts of the Local Authority Broadband Officers who approached the scheme with great enthusiasm and energy.”Since their appointment three years ago, the Broadband Officers have continually shown the benefit of their roles and this is just one example of how they are working together to improve connectivity in their communities,” Minister Canney added
“I want to thank them all for their hard work and wish them the best of luck in the implementation of the network. Two further calls for applications under WiFi4EU will take place between now and the end of the initiative in 2020,” he concluded.
