Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 March 2021
110. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan in County Galway; the number of premises in County Galway that are now connected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1597/21]
View answerThe 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.
Design work is complete or ongoing in target townlands across every county in Ireland with over 186,000 premises surveyed as of 3 March.
There are 38,714 premises within the intervention area for County Galway for the National Broadband Plan. As of 3 March some 14,914 (39%) have been surveyed in the areas of Oranmore, Clarinbrige, Claregalway, Furbo and Barna. In the east of the county works are underway in areas around Ballinasloe such as Kiltomer, Oatfield, Annagh, Kilconnell, and Ahascragh. Further details are available on specific areas across the country including County Galway 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 when works are due to commence.
NBI currently has construction underway on the first 40,000 premises, covering townlands in Carrigaline, Ballinasloe, Cavan, Clare, Dundalk, Galway, Limerick Monaghan, Roscommon, Tipperary, Tralee and Ballinasloe. The first connections to the NBI network have already been made as part of a test and trial phase in Carrigaline and Cavan with a test and trial phase also commencing shortly in Galway. Over the coming months retailers will be able to resell the service and householders will be able to order high speed broadband via the NBP network. NBI is targeting construction of the fibre network to commence in all 26 counties by the end of 2021.
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 3 March, 287 BCP sites have been installed by NBI and the high speed broadband service will be switched on through service provider contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development for publicly accessible locations and the Department of Education for schools. Lettermullen Community Centre, Comhar Na nOileán, Cortoon Community Centre and Leitrim Community Centre have now been connected with high speed publicly accessible broadband, with more locations planned over the coming months. Further details can be found at https://nbi.ie/bcp-locations/.
Saint Joesph's National School and Brownsgrove National School have also been connected for educational access as part of this initiative. My Department continues to work with the Department of Education to prioritise other schools with no high speed broadband, within the intervention area for connection over the term of the NBP. In this regard, an acceleration of this aspect of the National Broadband Plan has been announced which will see almost 700 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/.
