National Broadband Plan

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 July 2019

Thursday, 4 July 2019

Ceisteanna (61)

Éamon Ó Cuív

Ceist:

61. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when the roll-out of the Eir contract with his Department will be completed; the number of premises expected to be passed under this contract; the number passed to date; the method by which in future it is planned to obtain information on the number of premises that have a connection to high speed broadband; his plans to request the CSO to survey this information as part of the household surveys carried out by it; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28299/19]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment

In accordance with the April 2017 Commitment Agreement signed between eir and my Department, my officials engage regularly with eir in relation to its ongoing rural fibre deployment of high speed broadband to 300,000 premises. According to Quarter 1 2019 figures verified by my Department, the company has passed 250,965 premises as part of this deployment. According to information provided by eir to my Department, eir plans to complete the vast majority of the deployment by mid-2019.

While the CSO provide information on Internet usage through the Quarterly Household Survey a further useful source of information can be found in ComReg's quarterly key data reports which highlight trends in the telecommunications industry. This includes the number of subscriptions in Ireland to high speed broadband services by speed (e.g. download speeds of 30 megabits per second) and by platform (fibre, cable, VDSL etc.). The latest report can be found in the following link: https://www.comreg.ie/publication/quarterly-key-data-report-q1-2019/