Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 March 2016
553. Deputy Pat Deering asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the 14 rural areas (details supplied) in County Carlow that were promised high speed broadband in 2014. [4774/16]
View answer554. Deputy Pat Deering asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when Tullow town and the surrounding area in County Carlow will receive a quality broadband service. [4775/16]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 553 and 554 together.
The Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided.
The commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2 billion in network upgrades and enhanced services in the last four years, and is continuing to invest. These very significant investments represent a step change in the quality of broadband services available.
On the 22 December 2015, I formally launched the procurement process for the State Intervention to provide high quality, high speed broadband to all premises in Ireland that may not be served through commercial investment. The formal procurement commenced with the publication of the Project Information Memorandum and the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire. In addition, my Department also published:
- the National Intervention Strategy – updated in December 2015, which takes account of responses to the public consultation which took place in July 2015 and subsequent expert analysis; and
- the High Speed Broadband Map 2020 which follows ongoing engagement with industry and public consultation.
The Intervention strategy sets out a detailed service specification including a requirement that the State-funded network must be capable of delivering high-quality, high speed broadband of at least 30 Mbps download and 6 Mbps upload. It must also be capable of catering for higher performance in the future so as to keep pace with consumer demand. It is therefore a matter for bidders to select the technology which will show how they propose to meet these contractual requirements.
The 2020 map is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The map shows Ireland with two colours, BLUE and AMBER.
The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services. My Department continues to monitor the commercial deployment plans in the BLUE area to ensure that High Speed Broadband is delivered.
The areas marked AMBER represent the target areas for the proposed State intervention and will be a matter for discussion with bidders during the NBP procurement process which is currently in train.
Members of the public can see whether their individual premise is in the BLUE or AMBER area by inserting their Eircode, and/ or address, or scrolling through the map.
The specific information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table.
|
County |
Name |
Townland |
Premises currently expected to be covered by State intervention under NBP |
Existing and Planned commercial High Speed Broadband |
|
Tullow Town |
Tullowbeg Tullowphelim |
1% 4% |
99% 96% |
|
|
Ballinabrannagh |
Ballinabrannagh |
100% |
||
|
Ballymurphy |
Ballymurphy (St Mullin’s Lower By) |
100% |
|
|
|
Bilboa |
Clogrenan |
100% |
|
|
|
Clonmore |
Rathvilly By |
100% |
|
|
|
Corries Cross |
Corries or Corry More |
100% |
|
|
|
Hacketstown |
Hacketstown Lr |
100% |
|
|
|
Kernanstown |
Kernanstown |
3% |
97% |
|
|
Kilbride |
Kilbride Knockdoorish |
100% 100% |
|
|
|
Myshall |
Myshall |
100% |
|
|
|
Nurney |
Nurney |
100% |
|
|
|
Palatine |
Knockbane |
100% |
|
|
|
Rathoe |
Rathoe |
100% |
|
|
|
St Mullins |
Glebe (St Mullins Lower By) |
100% |
|
|
|
Carlow |
The Ridge |
Ridge |
100% |
|
The intention is to build out the network in the AMBER area as quickly as possible and engagement with industry stakeholders has indicated that this could be achieved within 3-5 years of the contract award.
In this context, the NBP proposes that through the combination of commercial investment and State intervention, 85% of addresses in Ireland will have access to high speed services by 2018, with all addresses passed by 2020.
