Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 February 2025
200. Deputy Frankie Feighan asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to provide any information regarding the full restoration of broadband and phone communications in rural Ireland, especially in the north-west region in the aftermath of storm Éowyn. [7209/25]
View answerAs part of the national response to Storm Éowyn, the Cross-Departmental Recovery Group was established. The Group, chaired by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, is coordinating actions to restore telecommunications and broadband to those experiencing outages.
The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Patrick O’Donovan TD, met with industry representatives (including National Broadband Ireland) on 14 February 2025, to discuss the storm impact on telecommunications infrastructure, the industry’s response, restoration works and their plans to improve the networks resilience to emergency weather events.
Industry representatives outlined several issues at this meeting which delayed the restoration of broadband services. The main issues identified were:
• The delay in the restoration of power meant many faults were only discoverable after power was restored.
• Falling trees were also the leading cause of lines being cut. 3000 poles were knocked down in Storm Éowyn in comparison to 700 poles during Storm Darragh in December.
• A delay in getting permission from landowners to access sites to institute repairs to masts.
Information available to the Department advise that all mobile services in the Northwest region have been restored.
Repair and restoration work has returned normal services to most broadband customers and several fixed service operator networks have returned to normal service levels. The final two infrastructure service providers are expected to be back to normal service levels this week. The infrastructure service providers continue to provide updates to all retail service providers on restored faults and resolution times.
That notwithstanding, it is recognised that many areas in the North and West of the country continue to be affected by outages which have been caused by extensive damage to infrastructure in rural areas. Restoration of full services continues to be hampered by the complexity of the repairs required to restore damaged infrastructure. Telecommunications operators continue to engage with ComReg and report outages across their networks. They have mobilised all available resources to ensure swift restoration of services. Repair work was prioritised and crews were redeployed to affected counties from other areas of the country.
National Broadband Ireland (NBI) have a total of 0.07% of the national userbase affected with the majority in Cavan, Roscommon, Galway and Sligo. NBI have nearly 98% of premises restored from peak volumes and will reach business as usual this week. Of the small number of NBI premises that are still impacted by Storm Éowyn, Donegal accounts for approximately 6.5%, Sligo accounts for approximately 10%, Leitrim accounts for approximately 4.5%, Cavan accounts for approximately 12.5% and Monaghan accounts for approximately 7%.
To mitigate the impact of Storm Éowyn and accelerate restoration efforts, NBI has implemented several measures and has been fully mobilised since 24 January, deploying significant resources nationwide. Crews are currently working across the Northwest of the country to restore services as quickly as possible.
My officials have been informed by NBI that they have implemented the following actions:
• NBI mobilised four additional subcontractors, whose efforts in supporting repair and assurance works have been crucial to reconnecting end users as swiftly as possible.
• NBI liaised with existing subcontractors to ensure that all allocated resources across the National Broadband Plan (NBP) are prioritising storm recovery.
• NBI coordinated the supply of additional materials and equipment to support field teams.
• NBI have engaged five fibre-splicing crews from the UK, to assist with repairs.
• NBI continue to prioritise restoration based on customer impact, and although the volume of fibre breaks is unprecedented, significant progress has been made to date.
• NBI maintain open communication channels with Retail Service Providers, providing real-time updates regarding completed or scheduled repair works, including notifying when service is restored to end users.
• NBI and contractors' field staff have travelled extensively across the country to support the hardest-hit areas and those regions requiring more time for restoration.
