Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 January 2021
421. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Education the section within her Department a school (details supplied) should contact to request fibre broadband; the process and contact details of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44669/20]
View answerThrough the Schools Broadband Access Programme the Department provides for the supply of internet connectivity to all recognised primary and post primary schools, and some 98% of schools are included in this scheme. The policy of my Department is to offer the best quality connectivity to all schools in line with the technical solution and subject to procurement and regulatory requirements. Broadband capacity can vary due to geographical location and local infrastructure, and thus impact on the service that can be provided. The Department's High Speed Broadband Programme provides all recognised post-primary schools, high speed broadband with a minimum broadband speed of 100mbs with many now on 200 Mbp/s plus connectivity. There are 58 special schools also included in this programme, managed for the Department by HEAnet. Currently, my Department spends some €13m on the provision of internet connectivity to schools annually.
The school referred to by the Deputy is on a high speed 50mb wireless connection since the beginning of this year, which is a dedicated service to the school. If they have not already done so, the school should contact the Schools Broadband Service Desk in the first instance, in order to rule out any issues with the internal infrastructure of the school, that may be impacting their service, be it on a wireless or wired network. The school should record their bandwidth upgrade request with the service desk at this time also. The Broadband service desk is the Department's dedicated broadband service desk which is managed by the Professional Development Service for Teachers - Technology in Education (PDST-TiE). They can be contacted by phoning 1800334466 or by emailing broadbandservicedesk@pdst.ie.
This school is included in the National Broadband Plan Intervention Area Plan for which implementation is now underway, and as announced recently, the provision of high speed connectivity to the almost 700 primary schools in that area is to be accelerated for delivery by the end of 2022. My Department is engaging with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications on the intervention area implementation, including the Schools Broadband Connection Points Programme. When the high speed infrastructure is in place for this school through the NBP, the service will be upgraded to the school through the Schools Broadband Programme.
