Fibre connectivity in the Seaview estate referred to in the Question is to be provided, in part, through the National Broadband Plan State-led intervention but also through commercial investment. And while NBI have provided service to a portion of the residents in the estate, I am advised that the remaining premises should be served through commercial means in the near future.
However, my officials will seek to confirm an exact time for connection from the commercial operator in question and absent a clear timeframe will revert to NBI to provide a fibre broadband service. I will revert once we have clarity on this and a time to connect the premises in that estate which are currently not served by NBI.
The NBP intervention area is informed by coverage data provided by commercial operators and my Department relies on this data to be as accurate as possible to avoid situations where fibre is delivered to certain estates through different operators and different times.
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, including that:
• 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 National Broadband Plan intervention contract provides for the roll out of a high speed and future-proofed broadband network to primarily rural areas. The intervention area covers over 1.1 million people living and working in over 560,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with some 679 schools.
These targets will be achieved through commercial operators investing in their networks, complemented by the State’s National Broadband Plan intervention. When taken together, all premises in the State will have access to high-speed broadband in every part of the country no matter how remote.
