Microsoft’s global president has warned that Ireland’s rural economy could suffer catastrophic damage if broadband remains unavailable.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Independent, Brad Smith said areas outside Dublin, Cork and other cities would face an “extraordinarily difficult” future for jobs and development without broadband access.

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“It’s really important that Ireland gets the benefit of this,” Smith warned.

“With roughly a million people in those areas, it’s critical to close the gap.

“If a rural community doesn’t have access to broadband, it makes it extraordinarily difficult to attract new jobs. It even makes it difficult to sustain the jobs that are there. And it makes it impossible to take advantage of advances for everything from healthcare to education.”

Smith was talking after Microsoft convened a meeting with company founder Bill Gates and CEO Satya Nadella in Dublin last week.

The board meeting was held here as the city is one of Microsoft’s “most important” locations, Smith said. The company employs 2,100 people in its Sandyford campus.

Smith’s comments on rural broadband come as the Government tries to iron out remaining details on a contract with National Broadband Ireland, the ‘preferred bidder’ for the state-backed National Broadband Plan, which could cost taxpayers up to €3bn including Vat.

Smith said the absence of connectivity in communities has far-reaching societal consequences which go beyond the ability to download movies or use social media.

“One of the things we find repeatedly is communities that don’t have broadband feel left behind, because they are, especially when it comes to job growth and economic growth,” he said.

“And you can even see a correlation between that and communities that want their nation to turn inward.

“You cannot sustain a healthy democracy if there are major groups of people who feel they are being left behind.” Smith said that people are now increasingly vulnerable to technology-related influences and that more regulation is required in an age of polarisation and potentially destructive new online tools.

“We see threats to privacy, the weaponisation of code with cyber-attacks and other forms of cyber-threats to democracy,” he said.

“It’s everything from AI creating concerns about facial recognition to the impact on jobs and the economy.

“So to look at all this and say ‘we don’t need any guardrails, we just need to move fast’, is no longer a recipe for success,” he said.

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