Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 November 2023
148. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will ensure that the provision of fibre broadband to a medical facility (details supplied) is urgently prioritised. [47674/23]
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 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.
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.
National Broadband Ireland (NBI) have advised that the premises referred to in the question is at a status of “Network Build in Progress” and an estimated date of connection of July 2025 – December 2025. However, my officials have also advised that this premises should be currently capable of receiving speeds of up 90Mbps from any Retail Service Provider (RSP) of open eir. If your constituent is not receiving these speeds they should, in the first instance, raise this with their RSP.
Your constituent can then contact my officials by completing a web form at secure.dccae.gov.ie/forms/NBP-Customer-Service.aspx providing full details so that my officials can escalate the matter to Open eir for investigation
NBI advise that as of 27th October 2023, 191,146 premises are passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. 58,332 premises are already connected to the NBP high-speed broadband network.
Furthermore, as of 31st October 3,125 premises in County Longford have now been passed by NBI with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection, with 1,034 premises now connected.
Commercial operators and NBI will continue work in County Longford, and all counties, over the next three years to complete their fibre rollouts and all efforts are being made to speed up to the rollout. My Department is working extremely hard with Local Authorities to ensure any barriers encountered by these operators are dealt with quickly through day to day engagement and through the work of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Task force.
Further details are available on specific areas within County Longford and can be monitored via nbi.ie/reps. A county update can be selected to provide the overall number of premises in the Intervention Area, the overall NBP investment in the county, the number of premises passed and connected to date and the status of each of the Deployment Areas with the anticipated date for connection over the lifetime of the project. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie , which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.
Commercial operators’ fibre rollouts are progressing at pace. Open eir have already passed over 9,328 homes and businesses in Longford with gigabit services, with plans to pass a further c.5,700 homes and businesses over the next 2 – 3 years, bringing their total fibre-based investment in the county to over €7m.
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 significantly 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.
