Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 June 2023
121. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to report on the plans to install fibre optics in the Foxrock area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30837/23]
View answerThe area referred to in the Question is currently served by commercial operators and is identified as a BLUE area on the Government NBP High-Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie.
BLUE/commercial areas are not included in the State intervention area as commercial operators are already providing high-speed broadband and have also indicated future plans to upgrade these areas to full fibre to the home.
Under State aid rules, the State is not permitted to displace commercial investment by intervening in areas where commercial investment exists or is planned.
There are 556K premises in the Dublin city boundary served with Gigabit broadband from Openeir, Virgin Media and Siro.
• Just over 88% of Dublin premises are Gigabit capable, with over 30% having a choice of 2 or more providers.
• All three commercial operators are in various stages of fibre rollouts and the remaining non-gigabit capable premises should be passed in the coming years.
The area referred to in the question is currently or is in the process of being serviced with Gigabit or full fibre to the home broadband services through the following service providers:
• Virgin Media, partially serve Foxrock with Gigabit broadband
• Siro are currently rolling out fibre to the home in parts of the Foxrock area, and
• Openeir are also rolling out fibre to the home across the entire Foxrock area; this rollout started in mid-2022 and they have indicated that the majority of this fibre rollout will be completed in the coming 3 years.
In December 2022 my Department published Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy which supports the ambition outlined in the National Digital Strategy and sets out a number of ambitious targets namely:
* all Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028;
* all populated areas will be covered by 5G no later than 2030, and
* digital connectivity will be delivered to all schools and broadband connection points by 2023.
The majority of digital connectivity across the State will be delivered through commercial investment by the telecommunications industry and this will be complemented by the rollout of fibre across mainly rural areas under the State subsidised scheme by National Broadband Ireland.
