Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 January 2021
57. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he plans to accelerate the roll-out of the national broadband plan in County Mayo; if consideration is being given to outsourcing or engaging in strategic partnerships with other operators to ramp-up the roll-out as a result of increased levels of working from home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4143/21]
View answer59. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of roll-out the national broadband plan in County Mayo; the number of premises to be surveyed versus the number surveyed to date; the current timeline of the roll-out in County Mayo; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4146/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 57 and 59 together.
The National Broadband Plan (NBP) State led Intervention will be delivered by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) under a contract to roll out a high speed and future proofed broadband network within the Intervention Area which covers 1.1 million people living and working in the over 544,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools, and will also include any new homes built in the Intervention Area over the next 25 years. The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie, shows the areas 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.
Design work on the National Broadband Plan is complete or ongoing in target townlands across every county in Ireland. I am advised by National Broadband Ireland that, as of 15 January 2021, over 161,000 premises across all counties have been surveyed. In County Mayo surveys have been carried out across the townlands of Aghagower, Ballyhean, Breaghwy, Burren, Castlebar, Clogher, Cloonkeen, Croaghmoyle, Islandeady, Killavally, Manulla, Pontoon, Strade, Tawnynagry, Turlough, Drumsheen, Bunnyconnellan, Ballina Town, Carrowntreila, Ardagh, Campbells Crossroads, Rosserk, Shanvoley, Derryhick, Kilhale, Tawnylaheen, Turlough, Ballyvary, Keeloges, Castlebar Town, Rinnaseer, Bellaburke, Killawullaun Mountain, Carn, Carnacon, Ballyglass, Belcarra, Balla and Ringarraun. Further details are available on specific areas within County Mayo through the NBI website which provides a facility for any premises within the intervention area to register their interest in being provided with deployment updates through its website www.nbi.ie. Individuals who register with this facility will receive regular updates on progress by NBI on delivering the network and specific updates related to their own premises as works commence. I am advised that NBI is working to provide more detail on its website, with a rolling update on network build plans. NBI also has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.
Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) are a key element of the NBP providing high speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll out of the fibre to the home network. As of December 11 of January, 243 publicly accessible BCP sites have been installed by NBI and the high speed broadband service will be switched on in these locations through service provider contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development. BCP’s are connected in Mayo at Taugheen Community Centre, Killaser Community Centre, Bofeenaun Community Centre and Islandeady Community Centre. Further details can be found at https://nbi.ie/bcp-locations/.
Scoil Néifinn is installed by NBI for educational access as part of this initiative. School BCPs will be provided with high speed broadband for educational use only through ‘service provider' contracts managed by the Department of Education. An acceleration of this aspect of the project has just been announced which will see some 679 primary schools connected to high speed broadband by 2022, well ahead of the original target delivery timeframe of 2026. Further details are available on the NBI website at https://nbi.ie/primary-schools-list/.
The Programme for Government commits to seek to accelerate the roll out of the National Broadband Plan. In this regard, my Department continues to engage with NBI to explore the feasibility of accelerating aspects of this rollout 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.
NBI has established a dedicated team to investigate acceleration of the rollout from its current contracted schedule of seven years. All possible alternative network providers are being considered and substantial work has been completed by this team to date with further actions scheduled over the coming months. Part of this work includes an assessment of the potential to utilise the ESB Network for certain areas and this work is on-going. The technical feasibility of whether the ESB network is compatible with the NBI solution has been the primary focus and NBI has undertaken site surveys and developed a detailed design for a pilot area using the ESB network, with the aim of establishing from this pilot exercise, the feasibility of using the ESB infrastructure on a broader basis.
Exploring the potential to accelerate the network rollout is being undertaken in parallel with the measures required to mitigate delays arising as a result of Covid-19.
