Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 November 2023
34. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications what percentage of Meath homes and businesses have benefitted from the roll-out of fibre broadband as part of the National Broadband Plan; of those that have yet to be reached, the predicted timeline before they are connected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51299/23]
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 the rollout by National Broadband Ireland (NBI).
In County Meath, Open eir have already passed over 35,800 homes and businesses with gigabit services, with plans to pass a further c. 25,000 homes and businesses over the next 2 – 3 years, bringing their total fibre-based investment in the county to over €32m. Other commercial operators are also continuing to increase their network footprint right across Meath, with SIRO recently passing over 20,000 premises for full fibre, and Virgin Media passing over 18,000 premises.
Along with the progress made by commercial operators’ in expanding their next generation networks throughout the State, 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.
I am advised by NBI that, over 200,000 premises are passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. Over 60,000 premises are already connected to the NBP high-speed broadband network. In County Meath, 3,423 premises are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection. This represents 16% of premises in the Intervention Area (IA) with 925 premises now connected which is a take up of 27%.
Further details are available on specific areas within County Meath 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.
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.
