Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 March 2023
110. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if and when modern, effective broadband services are likely to be made available to the people of Martinstown, Kilmore and Enfield in County Kildare, which also covers the motorway service facilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15827/23]
View answerThe High-Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie, shows the areas 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 BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services. The Martinstown area referred to in the question is located in a predominately BLUE area and bordered by AMBER premises.
I am advised by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) that, as of 17 March 2023, over 138,000 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 26 counties, with over 126,800 premises passed across 26 counties which are available for immediate connection. As of 28 February 2,543 premises in County Kildare are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection with 891 premises already connected.
The NBP network build that commenced in 2020 is scheduled to be completed by 2027. The business referred to in the question is located in the AMBER area. NBI advise that this business is at a status of Survey Complete. Anticipated Connection dates for this area are between July and December 2024.
Further details are available on specific areas within County Kildare 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. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.
NBI have created a portal that will serve as a means for Oireachtas members to proactively search for information relevant to their county/local area. The portal provides an up-to-date picture of NBI’s deployment schedule across the 227 Deployment Areas (DAs) in all 26 counties. A particular county can be selected to view an update of the overall number of premises in the Intervention Area, the overall NBP investment in the county, the number of premises passed and connected to date and the status of each of the Deployment Areas with the anticipated date for connection over the lifetime of the project. The dedicated webpage can be accessed here: nbi.ie/reps
The activities of commercial operators delivering high-speed broadband within BLUE areas are not planned or funded by the State and my Department has no statutory authority to intervene in that regard.
Eir has committed to rolling out fibre to a further 1.6 million premises throughout the country, bringing their fibre deployment to some 1.9 million premises. SIRO is currently completing the first phase of its fibre deployment and to date has passed more than 430,000 premises with gigabit services and it has recently announced plans to extend its network to an additional 320,000 premises. Virgin Media is offering 250Mbps as a standard offering with 500Mbps and 1Gbps available to many of their customers across the more than 1 million premises that they cover. Many other network operators and telecom service providers across the State also continue to invest in their networks.
