Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 December 2017
187. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if a company (details supplied) has met its commitments at the end of quarter 3 of 2017 on the roll-out of high speed broadband in rural areas; the number of premises served to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52468/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra188. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of premises served under a contract with a company (details supplied) in which the service is provided by fibre to the premises, exchange of cabinet launched VDSL and other technologies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52469/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 187 and 188 together.
The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) will ensure high speed broadband access (minimum 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland via a combination of commercial investment and State Intervention. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecommunications sector so that to date over 1.5m or 67% of the 2.3m premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband. By 2020 it is expected that 90% of premises in Ireland will have access to high speed broadband.
In April 2017, I signed a Commitment Agreement with eir in relation to its plans to provide High speed broadband to 300,000 premises in rural areas on a commercial basis. eir has committed to completing the rollout by the end of 2018. Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at http://fibrerollout.ie/eircode-lookup/.
A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department’s website www.dccae.gov.ie.
Quarterly updates on eir's rural deployment are published on this website and can be viewed at:
http://www.dccae.gov.ie/documents/County%20Statistics.pdf.
Following evaluation by officials from my Department of eir's Q3 update of its rural deployment of high speed broadband I can confirm that eir has met its Q3 target of 101,000 premises passed. As part of the Q3 update eir also informed officials from my Department that, as of September 2017, there are 14,287 connections to premises utilising Fibre to the Home technology.
