Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 November 2018
187. Deputy Eugene Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the roll out of high speed broadband for counties Roscommon and Galway under the national broadband plan payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49900/18]
View answerIn April 2017 my Department published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. This map shows the areas targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan. The Map is colour coded and searchable by address/Eircode: - The AMBER areas represent the target areas for the proposed State led Intervention under the NBP and are the subject of an ongoing procurement process.
- The BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.
- The LIGHT BLUE areas represent eir's commercial rural deployment plans to rollout high speed broadband to 300,000 premises as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with my Department in April 2017.
There are some 39,000 premises in Roscommon. Nearly 18,500 (47%) fall within the AMBER area and will be served under the State led Intervention. More than 17,000 (44%) of premises are in a BLUE area and are or will be served by commercial providers, while some 3,500 (9%) are LIGHT BLUE and fall to be served by eir's planned rural deployment.
There are some 135,000 premises in Galway. Just over 39,000 (29%) fall within the AMBER area and will be served under the State led Intervention. Nearly 85,500 (63%) of premises are in a BLUE area and are or will be served by commercial providers, while nearly 10,500 (8%) are LIGHT BLUE and fall to be served by eir's planned rural deployment.
Information on categories of specific premises can be accessed on the Department’s website, www.broadband.gov.ie, by entering the relevant Eircode into the High Speed Broadband Map.
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 to 300,000 premises. Further detail on this progress is provided on its website www.fibrerollout.ie.
My priority is bringing the procurement process to a fair and impartial conclusion as quickly as possible. My Department will now conclude its assessment of the final tender submission received by the bidder on 18 September 2018 and I will bring a recommendation to Government in the coming weeks.
