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National Broadband Plan Implementation

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 January 2019

Tuesday, 15 January 2019

Questions (868, 878)

Peadar Tóibín

Question:

868. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views on the fact that a number of miles outside large towns such as Navan and Trim businesses, homes and farms are forced to operate with a substandard Internet service (details supplied); his plans for an interim solution to the matter; and if he will work with private enterprise in order to speed up the process. [54323/18]

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Peadar Tóibín

Question:

878. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of homes and businesses in County Meath without access to high speed broadband; the estimated date for these homes and businesses to receive access to high speed broadband; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1482/19]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 868 and 878 together.

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure high speed broadband access (minimum 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland. This is being achieved via a combination of commercial investment and a State led intervention.

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.

There are approximately 85,307 premises in County Meath. Since December 2015, the number of premises with access to high speed broadband in Meath has increased by 31,564, a 36% increase. In total, the number of premises in Meath with access to high speed broadband is now 62,934, or 74% of the total number of premises in the county. Approximately another 2,468 premises will be served by eir under that company’s ongoing rural deployment.

The remaining 19,905 homes, schools and businesses in Meath will be connected under the Government’s NBP State Intervention.

In April 2017 my Department published an updated High Speed Broadband Map, which is available on my Department's website 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.

The specific premises referred to by the Deputy is in the AMBER area on the Map. The AMBER areas represent the target areas for the proposed State led Intervention under the NBP. This intervention is the subject of an ongoing procurement process.

The procurement process to appoint a bidder for the State intervention network is now at the final stage. My priority is to bring the procurement process to a fair and impartial conclusion as quickly as possible and I will bring a recommendation to Government in this regard in the coming weeks.

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 address 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.

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