Brendan Smith
Question:859. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the position regarding the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45698/18]
View answerTuesday, 6 November 2018
Questions (859)
Written answers
The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure high speed broadband access (minimum 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector. In 2012, less than 700,000, or 30% of all 2.3 million Irish premises had access to high speed broadband. When this Government came into office this had risen to 52%. Today, 74% of premises can access high speed broadband services. This is being achieved via a combination of commercial investment and a State led intervention. Commercial operators have invested over €2.75 billion in upgrading and modernising their networks over the past 5 years, and further investments are planned.
Under a Commitment Agreement signed with my Department in April 2017, eir is in the process of passing 300,000 predominantly rural homes with high speed broadband. According to data for Q3 2018 submitted by eir to my Department the company has passed almost 210,000 premises nationwide as part of its ongoing deployment. This data will be published on my Department’s website shortly.
The procurement process to appoint a bidder for the State intervention network is now at the final stage, with evaluation of the final tender submission received on 18 September ongoing. The Taoiseach has asked Mr Peter Smyth, the independent process auditor to the NBP procurement to review the process. Mr Smyth will submit a report to the Taoiseach and to me as Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment. This review is taking place in parallel to the evaluation being carried out by the Department’s procurement team on the final tender.
For those premises currently awaiting access to high speed broadband, practical initiatives will continue to be addressed through the work of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce to tackle obstacles and improve connectivity in respect of existing and future mobile phone and broadband services.
Under this Taskforce, engagement between telecommunications operators and local authorities through the Broadband Officers is continuing to strengthen. These Broadband Officers are acting as single points of contact in local authorities for their communities. The appointment of these officers is already reaping rewards in terms of ensuring a much greater degree of consistency in engagements.