Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 31 May 2018
19. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of his Department's interaction with commercial providers in relation to their roll-out of broadband provision in County Kildare; the extent of their plans for the area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23963/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra44. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23970/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 44 together.
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, 7 out of 10 of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland have access to high speed broadband. 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 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 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 as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with me in April 2017.
There are over 90,700 premises in Kildare. Some 13,400 (15%) fall within the AMBER area and will be served under the State led Intervention. Nearly 74,000 (82%) of premises are in a BLUE area and are, or will be, served by commercial providers, while approximately 3,300 (3%) are LIGHT BLUE and fall to be served by eir's planned rural deployment. A county by county breakdown of eir’s data for Q1 2018 is available on my Department’s website.
Information on categories of premises can be accessed on my Department’s website www.broadband.gov.ie by entering the relevant eircode into the High Speed Broadband Map.
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.
As per the obligations of the Commitment Agreement, officials from my Department meet with eir on a monthly basis to review the company’s performance on its ongoing rural deployment, including Kildare. The purpose of these review meetings is for eir to report progress and also to identify any risks or issues and their associated risk mitigation plans.
Data for Q1 2018 recently submitted by eir to my Department indicates that the company has passed some 145,000 premises nationwide as part of its ongoing deployment. eir has signalled that there would be likely knock-on effects to the 2018 milestone targets due to the severe weather impacts of both storms Ophelia and Emma. I have met with the senior management in eir and expressed to them the importance of implementing measures to catch up with milestone targets as a priority.
For those premises currently awaiting access to high speed broadband, 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. The Department of Rural and Community Development maintain a list of Broadband Officers, a link to which is available on my Department's website at https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/communications/topics/Broadband/national-broadband-plan/latest-news/Pages/Broadband-Officers-Workshop.aspx.
