Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 September 2021
32. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the latest date by which it is expected that all premises private and business will have a fibre telecommunications connection available to them; the steps he is taking to expedite same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43878/21]
View answerExtensive investment plans are in place by a range of commercial operators with further investment plans recently announced. These plans will see improved high speed broadband access across the country. Of the 2.4 million premises across Ireland, 77% of premises now have access to high-speed broadband of more than 30 Mbps. National Broadband Ireland (NBI), through the Government's State led intervention, will address the remaining premises to ensure no premises is left behind. Despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, National Broadband Ireland has made steady progress on delivery of the new high speed fibre broadband network under the National Broadband Plan. I am advised by NBI that, as of 3 September 2021, over 251,000 premises across 26 counties have been surveyed with almost 14,500 premises passed and available for connection. In line with the NBP Contract, the deployment plan is a 7 year build programme which is due to be completed by the end of 2026.
My Department has worked closely with NBI to put in place a remedial plan under the Contract to address the impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic on the project for 2021. The impact on future years continues to be assessed. NBI is putting in place mitigation measures to address the impact of the pandemic on the programme to date. These include
- Increasing the rate of pole replacement and duct remediation per month
- Bringing in more resources to NBI
- Purchasing more materials earlier
- Bringing in more subcontractors
In line with the Programme for Government, NBI and my Department are also engaged in a review of potential measures that can be taken to accelerate the network rollout in parallel with the measures required to mitigate delays arising as a result of Covid-19. My Department continues to engage with NBI to explore the feasibility of accelerating aspects of the NBP 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. However, the primary focus must be on addressing the delays which have arisen and ensuring that National Broadband Ireland's build programme gets back on track and is building momentum month on month.
The most recent Quarterly Key Data Report Q2, 2021 published by ComReg reported that fixed broadband subscriptions increased to 1.55 million, a 0.8% increase this quarter and an increase of 4.0% when compared to Q2 2020. Of these, over 308,000 were fibre-to the-premises (FTTP) subscriptions representing 19.9% of total fixed broadband subscriptions in Q2 2021, up from 13.5% in Q2 2020.
