Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 February 2018
462. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the availability of broadband services in an area (details supplied) in County Westmeath; when the national broadband plan will provide adequate service to this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8122/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure high speed broadband access (minimum 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector. Today, almost 7 out of 10 of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland have access to high speed broadband. Since this Government came into office almost 400,000 additional premises have access to high speed broadband. This will increase to nearly 8 out of 10 premises by the end of this year and by 2020, 9 out of 10 premises will have access to a high speed broadband connection. This is being achieved via a combination of commercial investment and a State led intervention. The premises on the street referred to by the Deputy are in an AMBER area on my Department’s High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie . They are therefore included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).
In April 2017 the Map was updated, moving 84,500 premises from the BLUE to the AMBER area. This was done because commercial operator’s plans in those areas had not materialised. Premises on the street referred to by the Deputy were among the number moved from BLUE to AMBER at that point. In order to ensure every premises gets access to this vital service, high speed broadband will be brought to them under the NBP State Intervention.
My Department is in a formal procurement process to engage the company who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. That procurement process is now at a final stage. When the procurement process reaches a satisfactory conclusion for Government, a contract will be awarded and the network rollout will commence.
Delivering high speed broadband to citizens across Ireland remains a firm commitment of mine and a priority for Government.
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.
