Broadband Project Will Help Assist Economic Recovery Of Countryside Says O’Neill

Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Michelle O’Neill has said the start of the Broadband Improvement Project in the north will enable her Department’s investment of £5million to be targeted directly at rural areas of high deprivation that currently have no access to broadband.

The Minister said:xa0“Now that this project is up and running I will ensure that the £5million investment that DARD is contributing to it will go to those areas which have suffered from a lack of broadband in the past. I am confident that effective access to broadband will greatly help those rural businesses and communities who have been disadvantaged, to benefit from technology that has been available to other parts of the north. “I want to see as many rural ‘not-spots’ enabled for broadband as possible so that rural dwellers can benefit from at least 2 Megabits per second of broadband services to all premises. This investment follows the Next Generation Broadband Investment, and I am aware that over 14,400 rural dwellers across the north directly benefitted from my Department’s previous investment of £2.5million.” The Minister added:xa0“It is my hope that this Project will help deliver wider, more effective and equitable access to broadband will be a boost to economic recovery in our countryside.”