Léim ar aghaidh chuig an bpríomhábhar
Gnáthamharc

National Broadband Plan Implementation

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 May 2018

Tuesday, 1 May 2018

Ceisteanna (349)

Pearse Doherty

Ceist:

349. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the timeframe for the roll-out of at least 30 megabits per second or 30 Mbps broadband to a location (details supplied) in County Donegal as part of the national broadband plan; if such areas with poor or no broadband coverage will be prioritised during the roll-out phase; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18975/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

The 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.

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 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 roll-out high speed broadband to 300,000 premises by the end of this year as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with me in April 2017.

There are just over 101,000 premises in County Donegal. Nearly 34,000 (33%) fall within the AMBER area and will be covered under the State led Intervention. More than 56,000 (56%) of premises are in a BLUE area and are, or will be, covered by commercial providers, while approximately 11,000 (11%) are LIGHT BLUE and fall to be covered by eir's planned rural deployment of high speed broadband to 300,000 premises by 2018.

The premises referred to by the Deputy is located in an AMBER area and therefore high speed broadband will be delivered via the State led intervention.

My Department is in a formal procurement process to select a company who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. That procurement process is now in its final stages.  My Department will engage with the successful company on the most efficient roll-out of the network.

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.

Barr
Roinn