The roll-out of the national broadband plan will be completed ahead of time and under budget.

Work on the controversial €2.9bn project is continuing despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim is to eventually connect over 500,000 homes, schools, businesses and farms that currently are not served by commercial operators.

Speaking exclusively to Newstalk, CEO of National Broadband Ireland Peter Hendrick says progress is being made.

"We are confident that the project can be delivered - what I would say - under budget and certainly earlier than we have committed.

"So that's our entire focus: let's get this done as fast as possible for the best value possible.

"And that's what our team our focused on.

"In the year to date we've designed 17,000 premises across multiple counties - Cork, Limerick, Galway, Cavan.

"And this month we're moving into Roscommon.

"So you can see things are starting to progress, and [we] hope to have homes connected certainly within this year".

The full interview will air this Saturday at 5.00pm on Tech Talk and podcast from Friday at noon.