Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 October 2023
149. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications what provision can be made for a community in Dublin’s north inner city (details supplied) that does not have access to fibre-optic broadband to each home on the road; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42160/23]
View answerIn 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
These targets will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and through the State investment in National Broadband Ireland (NBI).
The premises referred to in the Question is located in the BLUE area on the NBP High-Speed Broadband Map which is available on my Department's website at www.broadband.gov.ie. My officials have been advised that Virgin Media can provide high speed broadband to the premises in question.
BLUE areas are not included in the State intervention area covered by National Broadband Ireland as commercial operators are already providing high-speed broadband or have indicated future plans to do so. My Department defines high-speed broadband as a connection with minimum speeds of 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload. Under State aid rules, it is not permitted to intervene in areas where commercial investment exists or is planned, as to do so would be an infringement of these rules. 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.
Open eir have already passed over 223,600 homes and businesses in Dublin with gigabit services, with plans to pass a further c.358,000 homes and businesses over the next 2 – 3 years, bringing their total fibre-based investment in the county to over €216m. Other commercial operators are also continuing to increase their network footprint right across Dublin, with SIRO recently passing over 70,400 premises for full fibre, and Virgin Media passing over 488,700 premises
Recent ComReg data shows that Quarter 2, 2023 saw a 7.4% increase in fibre broadband subscriptions compared to the first 3 months of the year, and a 33.7% increase when compared to Quarter 2 of 2022. This demonstrates that take-up of fibre connectivity for homes and businesses is increasing massively as it is deployed to areas where it had previously been unavailable. The same ComReg data also indicates that c.40% of homes and business throughout the State now have access to gigabit services through either fibre (576,856) or cable (359,669) infrastructure.
