Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 November 2023
106. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the options available to a sports club (details supplied) in County Mayo seeking a fibre broadband connection when civil works have been deemed over budget; if he will intervene in this matter and insist on the works being carried out to facilitate this service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50671/23]
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.
My officials have advised that a representative of Ballina Rugby club should raise a query via the DECC webform at https://secure.dccae.gov.ie/forms/NBP-Customer-Service.aspx and we will escalate with open eir to investigate this matter further.
Commercial operators’ fibre rollouts are progressing at pace. Open eir have already passed over 34,200 homes and businesses in Mayo with gigabit services, with plans to pass a further c.14,000 homes and businesses over the next 2 – 3 years, bringing their total fibre-based investment in the county to over €26m. Other commercial operators are also continuing to increase their network footprint right across Mayo, with SIRO recently passing over 5,000 premises for full fibre, and Virgin Media passing over 7,600 premises.
Recent ComReg data shows that Quarter 2 of 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 substantially 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.
