Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 March 2021
199. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the number of broadband connection points installed in County Kildare in the past three years to date; the number of installations planned over the next 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13232/21]
View answerBroadband 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. Crookstown Further Education and Training and Community Centre along with Bigstone Community Hall have now been connected with high speed publicly accessible broadband, with Lullymore Heritage Park planned over the coming months. Further details can be found at https://nbi.ie/bcp-locations/.
Rathmore National School and Saint David's National School in Naas have been installed and will be connected by the retail service provider shortly 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 agreed 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/.
