Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 January 2018
1264. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the timeframe for the roll-out of fibre connections in Donegal town; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54388/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe 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 published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. This map shows the areas targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).
The Map is colour coded and searchable by address/eircode:
- The AMBER areas represent the target areas for the proposed State led Intervention under the NBP and are the subject of an ongoing procurement process.
- The BLUE represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.
- The Light BLUE areas represent eir's commercial rural deployment plans to rollout high speed broadband to 300,000 premises by the end of 2018 as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with me in April.
The map shows that the provision of high speed broadband in County Donegal will be realised through mix of commercial investment and through the State Intervention under the NBP. There are over 101,000 premises in County Donegal, over 67,000 of which fall within a BLUE area and will be covered by commercial operators. Of the 67,000 premises that fall to be covered commercially, almost 12,000 premises form part of eir's planned rural deployment. The remaining 33,000 premises in County Donegal fall within an AMBER area and will be part of the State led Intervention under the National Broadband Plan.
I note that the townland of Donegal town, as identified in the High Speed Broadband Map, includes approximately 514 premises, located in the BLUE area. Therefore commercial operators are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services to this townland.
Delivering connectivity to the 542,000 premises (including more than 33,000 premises in County Donegal) that fall within the State led intervention under the NBP remains a Government priority. In the public procurement process, the NBP specialist team is continuing its evaluation of the two bidders’ Detailed Solutions’ received in September last. This is the last stage of the procurement process before moving to the final tender stage early this year, and subsequently the appointment of a preferred bidder or bidders. My Department will engage with the winning bidder(s) to ensure the most efficient deployment as part of the NBP contract.
In the interim, practical initiatives will continue to be addressed through the work of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce to address obstacles and improve connectivity in respect of existing and future mobile phone and broadband services.
Under this Taskforce, engagement between telecommunications operators and local authorities through the Broadband Officers is continuing to strengthen. These Broadband Officers are acting as single points of contact in local authorities for their communities. The appointment of these officers is already reaping rewards in terms of ensuring a much greater degree of consistency in engagements with operators and clearing obstacles to developing infrastructure. There is a link to a list of these local Broadband Officers on my Department's website.
