Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 May 2017
1286. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if a company's (details supplied) plans to roll out broadband in County Kildare form part of the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20248/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra1288. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if a company (details supplied) will be in receipt of a State subsidy to roll out broadband in County Kildare in view of the fact that the company had plans to offer broadband before the NBP was announced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20258/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra1289. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the progress of the NBP in County Kildare; the date on which it expected that all homes and businesses will have access to reliable fast broadband; if the NBP gave consideration to the local area plans released for County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20260/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 1286, 1288 and 1289 together.
The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed broadband services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment by the telecommunications sector and a State intervention in those areas where commercial investment has not been fully demonstrated.
A key principle of the NBP is to support and stimulate commercial investment through policy and regulatory measures. Commercial investment since the publication of the NBP has considerably exceeded expectations. To date, the commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2.5bn in upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high speed broadband and mobile telecoms services.
There has been significant progress in relation to broadband rollout so that today, approximately 1.4m or 61% of premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband of a minimum of 30 Megabits per second. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector, which is continuing to expand this footprint.
On 4 April, I signed a commitment agreement with eir in relation to its plans to provide broadband to an additional 300,000 premises in rural areas on a commercial basis. Eir has committed to doing this work over a 90 week period, with an average of 500 premises passed per day. My Department will be monitoring this rollout to ensure that eir meets its obligations under the Agreement. A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department's website www.dccae.gov.ie.
On the same day I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. which finalises the State Intervention area. The updated Map shows the following categories of areas for delivery of broadband:
- The BLUE areas represent those areas where commercial telecommunications providers are either currently delivering or have indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services,
- The AMBER areas on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the areas that will require State Intervention and are the subject of the current procurement process.
It is intended that all premises will have access to services of at least 30 megabits per second when the procurement process is completed and the network rolled out.
There are circa 89,000 premises in County Kildare, approximately 13,000 (14%) of which are located in the Amber area on the Map, and will benefit from the NBP’s State Intervention. The remaining c76,000 (75%) premises are located in the commercial BLUE area and will be served by commercial operators and includes approx. 9,000 (12%) where eir is planning to deliver high speed broadband by 2018.
Individuals can themselves check whether their premises is in a BLUE or an AMBER area by accessing the High Speed Broadband Map and entering their Eircode at www.broadband.gov.ie
A formal procurement process is in train to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network within the State Intervention Area. The procurement process is being intensively managed, to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland, for at least 25 years. The level of subsidy that will be sought by bidders to roll-out high speed broadband in Amber areas of the High Speed broadband Map, will be established through that procurement process. No subsidy is paid towards the investment by commercial operators in rolling out high speed broadband in the Blue areas of the map.
The timeframe for the procurement continues to be dependent on a range of factors including the complexities that may be encountered by the procurement team and bidders, during the procurement process. During the Department's extensive stakeholder consultations in 2015, telecommunications service providers indicated a 3-5 year timeline to rollout a network of the scale envisaged under the NBP once contracts are in place.
The Programme for Government also commits to measures to assist in the rollout of the network once a contract is awarded. The Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best rollout strategy, in order to target areas of particularly poor service, business needs and/or high demand and a prioritisation programme.
