Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 April 2023
115. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will provide an update of the rollout for the National Broadband Plan for Cork east; the number of homes that have been connected to date for the same area; the number of homes that remain to be connected in the Youghal area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19889/23]
View answerThe National Broadband Plan (NBP) state led intervention is being delivered by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) under a contract, signed in November 2019 and which came into effect in January 2020, 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 over 560,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with some 679 schools.
I am advised by NBI that, as of 14 April 2023 over 147,600 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 26 counties, with over 135,500 premises passed and available for immediate connection. Over 37,300 premises are connected to the NBP Gigabit network. NBI has also advised that as of 31 March, 15,973 premises in County Cork are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection with 4,890 premises connected.
The Youghal Deployment Area will serve 2,309 premises under the National Broadband Plan. 2,076, or 90%, of these premises are ‘Passed’ and Ready for Service. A further 196 properties (8.4%) remain with some network build activity required before they can also be released to market.
As of the 23rd of April 2023, there were 544 Active Connections in the Youghal Deployment Area. This represents a connection rate of 26%. This is on par with other deployment areas of similar maturity across the country.
Further details are available on specific areas within County Cork via nbi.ie/reps. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.
Strategic Connection Points (SCPs) 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 14 April 2023, 895 SCP sites (283 Broadband Connection Points, which are publicly accessible sites, and 612 schools) have been installed 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 for publicly accessible sites and the Department of Education for school BCPs.
As of 31 March 2023, in County Cork all 24 BCP’s have been installed. Further details can be found at nbi.ie/bcp-map/. 86 schools have been installed to date for educational access. Further details of schools in scope are available on the NBI website at nbi.ie/primary-schools-list/.
In County Cork Eir has passed almost 129,000 premises with gigabit services. Siro has passed more than 53,000 premises with Virgin Media passing almost 8,500 premises.
