Over 52,000 farms away from main towns and roads may have to wait until 2026 before they are connected to high-speed broadband, according to eir’s chief executive Carolan Lennon.

Eir will complete the connection of 335,000 rural addresses with fiber optics by June.

This will bring the number of homes and businesses with access to high-speed broadband to over 80%, which Lennon said placed Ireland in the top quarter in Europe.

The company will then refocus on giving higher connection speeds to customers in cities and larger towns.

Both investments total €750m with no state support, Lennon said.

None of these upgrades, however, will cover the 61% of farms dependent on the state-subsidised National Broadband Plan (NBP) in more remote areas.

“I think the NBP will take five to seven years,” Lennon said on Monday.

There have been no updates since a November review concluded that the plan’s tendering process had not been compromised by private meetings between the only remaining bidder, David McCourt, and former Minister for Communications Denis Naughten.

Lennon also said eir’s continued investment would cover 80,000 to 100,000 customers previously thought to depend on the NBP, mostly in urban areas.