Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 June 2018
453. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of homes to be passed and connected with regard to the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26196/18]
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. 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, available at www.broadband.gov.ie, which shows those areas that will be served by commercial operators and those that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the NBP. This includes approximately 300,000 premises to be passed as part of eir's rural deployment of high speed broadband as part of the Commitment Agreement signed in April 2017. As of Q1 2018 circa 145,000 of those committed premises had been passed.
The NBP State led Intervention covers 96% of Ireland’s land mass, traversing 26 counties and including some 542,000 premises. These premises are coloured AMBER on the Map and are part of an ongoing procurement process. The formal procurement process to engage a company who will roll out a new high speed broadband network within the State Intervention Area is now in its final stages. The successful bidder will deploy and operate this State intervention network for the next 25 years.
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. There is a link to a list of these local Broadband Officers on my Department's website at www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/communications/topics/Broadband/national-broadband-plan/latest-news/Pages/Broadband-Officers-Workshop.aspx.
