Michael McNamara
Question:113. Deputy Michael McNamara asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications when a person (details supplied) will be facilitated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41388/23]
View answerTuesday, 26 September 2023
Questions (113)
Written answers
The Question refers to a premises located in the AMBER area on the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map which is available on my Department's website www.broadband.gov.ie The AMBER area represents the area to be served by the network to be deployed under the NBP State led intervention.
While an indicative timeframe of when it is expected that fibre connectivity will be provided to this premises is published on the NBI website, officials in my Department have enquired if there is any further information that would enable me to provide a more narrow delivery timeframe other than what’s currently available. NBI have advised of a current forecast date for delivery of the network to the region referred to in the Question as being 2026.
Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) 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 15th September some 950 sites have been installed by NBI 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. In County Clare 7 BCP’s have been installed to date. The site at Cree Community Centre, V15FY28, which is now connected, is located approximately 4km from premises referred to in the Question. Further details can be found at nbi.ie/bcp-locations/.
NBI have set out indicative dates as to when residents in this area will have full fibre broadband available to order. The detailed surveys and designs have not yet been completed and therefore it is not possible to give a definitive date for connection. As NBI are working across all counties and as the fibre deployment must start at the local exchange and work its way out towards more rural areas, it is not possible for NBI to accelerate the rollout to this Eircode to a date that is sooner than 2026. However, every effort is being made to rollout the network as fast as possible.
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.