Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 December 2018
72. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he has met with a company (details supplied) regarding the roll-out of broadband under the agreement previously reached; and if he has raised the issue of towns not being serviced by such a deal despite being included. [53135/18]
View answerI have not met with representatives of eir since my appointment.
Ongoing monitoring and oversight of the deployment commitments by eir are regularly monitored by my Department. Under the Commitment Agreement 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. Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at http://fibrerollout.ie/eircode-lookup/.
The deployment is not funded by the State and it is not planned or directed by my Department in any capacity. eir has indicated to the Department that their deployment schedule has been impacted by storms Emma and Ophelia, and other construction issues. The company has proposed new timelines for its deployment which would see the project completed by mid-2019. Officials from my Department are engaged on an ongoing basis with eir on this proposal.
In 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 or Eircode.
Where a citizen living in a town or premises that is categorised as Blue is unable to obtain a high speed broadband service, I would encourage them to email my Department at broadband@dccae.gov.ie with their Eircode, details of the service providers they have contacted and the issues encountered in respect of accessing high speed broadband and my Department will seek to enquire as to where the difficulties lie.
