Several days of broadband problems for Castlefin-Lifford areas

Castlefin and Lifford experienced significant broadband outages last week but the councillors had no way of dealing with the issue.

The matter arose at Monday's Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District meeting when Cllr Gary Doherty reported that these cause major problems in their area.

"There were a few days last week when we had no broadband connectivity at all and it caused a lot of issues, particularly for people who are working from home.  At least with Irish Water and the ESB, we as elected representatives have the facility available to report faults or escalate issues when they haven't been resolved but we don't have this when it comes to broadband. Can we do this through the council? he asked.

"There should be a way for us as a council to formally raise issues with broadband providers as and when they happen."

Cllr Patrick McGowan also voiced concerns adding concerns had been expressed in the past to National Broadband Ireland about such issues. He said he understood the county might be moved up the line in terms of getting connections earlier than 2026.

"At the moment in an area between Killygordon and Lifford the 3G and 4G signals are very poor."

Director of economic development, emergency services and information systems, Garry Martin said broadband was now a utility the same as water, telephone and electricity and very important to everyone.

"It's not something the council can act as a focal point for all complaints. All utility providers have their own complaints methodology and while we all find it frustrating from time to time, if you have a difficulty, the best solution is to contact them directly to get the matter resolved."

He added however that if it related to something at a structural level such as the rollout of the National Broadband Plan, the council would be happy to make the argument about how best to assist and expedite the countywide rollout as part of the national plan.

"But in the context of individual outages in any particular area I would encourage people to get in touch with their provider via their customer complaint contact directly because they are the ones that will be obliged to get the response for you," he said.

Mr Martin also said telephone coverage was a different thing and the reality was they were locking down  3G and 4G systems and some black spots are appearing as a result of the 5G rollout and said he would explore the issue more with the council's IT section and report back to the next meeting.