Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 February 2018
48. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if he will report on plans to extend high-speed broadband to all rural areas in the south Dublin County Council area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8742/18]
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. 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.
In April 2017 the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE) published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available on his Department’s website, 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 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 represent 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 this year as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with Minister Naughten in April.
In the South Dublin County Council area 98% of premises fall into the BLUE area while 1% of premises are in the AMBER area. Approximately 1% of premises fall into the LIGHT BLUE area. Individuals can check which category their premises falls into accessing www.broadband.gov.ie and entering their eircode into the High Speed Broadband Map.
The DCCAE is in a formal procurement process to engage a company who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. That procurement process is now at an advanced stage. “Detailed Solutions” have been evaluated by the NBP specialist team. This is the last stage of the procurement process before moving to the final tender stage, which will be followed by the appointment of a preferred bidder and contract signature. When the procurement process reaches a satisfactory conclusion and a subsidy level is agreed by Government, a contract will be awarded and the network rollout will commence.
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.
