A south Mayo county councillor has received confirmation that Eircom will not be upgrading the local Hollymount exchange, but that Hollymount will now come under the National Broadband Scheme. This means that the Government and the mobile network 3 will now be including the area in its rollout of broadband wireless technology in 2010.
While Cllr Patsy O’Brien has expressed his disappointment with the decision in relation to Eircom, he is looking forward to the rollout of the long-awaited National Broadband Scheme to the Hollymount area. The townlands of Annefield, Hollymount, Lissatava, Hollymount, Roundfort, Robeen, Shantallow, Cregduff, Cloonerneen, and Cappacurry are among those listed for receiving the National Broadband Scheme to be completed by 2010.
“It is essential for the survival of rural businesses, schools, and other local services who would be at a serious disadvantage without broadband, and in the current climate it is particularly frustrating that the Government has been so slow to respond,” said Cllr O’Brien. “The government policy had been to provide universal availability of broadband by 2005. Again this Government is five years behind, and rural areas like Hollymount have been left behind in the years of the so-called Celtic Tiger.”
Cllr O’Brien has been consistently raising this issue at county council level over the last number of years. He now hopes that the service that is badly needed for the greater Hollymount area will be provided as promised by September 2010.
