Skip to main content
Normal View

National Broadband Plan

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 June 2020

Tuesday, 23 June 2020

Questions (623)

Johnny Guirke

Question:

623. Deputy Johnny Guirke asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the measures he plans to take to accelerate broadband roll-out to particularly poorly serviced areas such as rural counties Meath and Westmeath to facilitate the reopening and survival of SMEs and to enable working from home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12206/20]

View answer

Written answers

The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie, shows the areas in Counties Meath and Westmeath which will be included in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) State led intervention as well as areas targeted by commercial operators. The map is colour coded and searchable by address and Eircode.

- Premises in the AMBER area will be provided with high speed broadband through the State led Intervention, the contract for which was signed in November last with National Broadband Ireland (NBI).

- The BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.

- The LIGHT BLUE area represents eir's commercial rural deployment plans to rollout high speed broadband to 300,000 premises, including in Counties Meath and Westmeath, as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with my Department in April 2017.

County

AMBER

Premises within the NBP State Intervention Area

BLUE

Premises within Commercial Operator’s Area

LIGHT BLUE

Premises within eir's commercial rural deployment

Meath

22% (18,989)

78% (67,609)

<1% (396)

Westmeath

26%(11,631)

74% (32,758)

<1% (167)

The NBP network will offer users a high speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 150Mbps from the outset. By the end of next year, NBI plans to pass in the region of 115,000 premises, with 70,000 - 100,000 passed each year thereafter until rollout is completed. All counties will see premises passed in the first 2 years and over 90% of premises in the State will have access to high speed broadband within the next four years. My Department continues to engage with NBI to explore the feasibility of accelerating aspects of this rollout.

Further information on deployment activities associated with the rollout can be found on the NBI website http://www.nbi.ie.

To support remote working and connected communities, approximately 300 Broadband Connections Points (BCPs) were identified by Local Authorities to be connected to high speed broadband this year. This will assist communities to quickly get free public access to high speed broadband in advance of the main NBP deployment. The BCP delivery project is well underway and surveying of the BCP locations is progressing which will facilitate detailed design and installation. BCP locations are subject to change and a number of the premises initially identified are in the process of being replaced with alternative locations. The remaining BCPs remain on track for delivery by the end of 2020.

There are 9 BCPs planned at present for County Meath and 7 for County Westmeath. Proposed BCP locations including schools, library hubs, local sports facilities and other public places are available to view on the High Speed Broadband Map (www.broadband.gov.ie). The BCPs in identified public places will leverage the high speed broadband connection through a range of measures and initiatives, for example providing free public Wi-Fi, some will also have hot-desks, and some will be digital hub business centres where digital training, business information events and other SME supports are organised.

I have asked my Department to investigate with National Broadband Ireland the feasibility of accelerating the 7 year deployment plan, to establish the possibility of bringing forward premises which are currently scheduled in years 6 and 7 of the current plan to an earlier date.

Question No. 624 answered with Question No. 620.
Top
Share