Businesses in three more towns are to get direct access to high speed fibre broadband, as a result of a €2.5m investment by telecoms company eNet.
The towns set to benefit are Kilkenny, Loughrea in Co Galway and Ardee in Co Louth.
Last April, eNet announced it was to provide a direct fibre link to every business in Claremorris, Co Mayo.
The project, which is currently under construction, will provide uncongested speeds of up to 250Mbps to the businesses connected to it.
Today's announcement came as eNet celebrates 10 years of operating the state's fibre optic Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) - telecoms networks around 94 major towns and cities, into which state entities and other telecom operators can connect.
Speaking today, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources said that fibre infrastructure and high speed broadband are essential supports for digital entrepreneurship, national competitiveness and job creation.
"The MANs have helped to transform Irish telecommunications by stimulating competition, reducing bandwidth costs and accelerating Ireland’s broadband position. They have also played an important role in supporting job creation and securing large scale foreign direct investment projects in regional cities and towns," Minister Pat Rabbitte said.
