Pádraig O'Sullivan
Ceist:184. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications if a definitive timeline for the rollout of high-speed broadband in County Cork will be provided. [28516/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 6 October 2020
Ceisteanna (184)
Freagraí scríofa
The National Broadband Plan (NBP) State led Intervention will be delivered by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) under a contract signed on last November to roll out a high speed and future proofed broadband network within the Intervention Area which covers 1.1 million people living and working in the nearly 540,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools. The NBP network will offer users a high speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 500Mbps from the outset. This represents an increase from the 150Mbps committed to under the Contract. The deployment plan forecasts premises passed in all counties within the first two years and over 90% of premises in the State having access to high speed broadband within the next four years.
Design work is complete or ongoing in target townlands across 23 counties and steady progress is being made with over 98,000 premises surveyed as of the 28 September. This survey work is feeding into detailed designs for each deployment area and laying fibre should commence shortly with the first fibre to the home connections expected around December.
In Cork 12,000 premises have been surveyed in the areas of Carrigaline and Midelton. NBI crews have started initial works for the build in the circa 4,000 premises in the Carrigaline area, including Cullen, Templebreedy, Carrigaline, Ballyfolye, Douglas, Ballyphehane, Glasheen, Mahon, and Kilpatrick. Laying of fibre should start shortly with the first fibre to home connection expected around December 2020 in Carrigaline.
NBI provides a facility for any premises within the AMBER area to register their interest in being provided with deployment updates through its website (https://nbi.ie/map/).
Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) are a key element of the NBP providing high speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll out of the fibre to the home network. Some 155 BCP sites have been installed by NBI and the high speed broadband service will be switched on in these locations through 'service provider' contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development for publicly available sites and by the Department of Education and Skills (DES) for schools.
There are a number of BCPs located across County Cork including at Aubanem, Mealagh Valley, Whitechurch, Glash, Courtbrack. Sherkin Island, Ballindangan and Lissvard Community Centres and Bere Island Heritage centre. A number of schools including Clogagh and Ballycroneen National School will also be connected to high speed broadband as part of the BCP initiative. The Department will work with DES to prioritise the remaining schools to be connected over the term of the NBP. Further details can be found at https://nbi.ie/bcp-locations/.
While substantial progress has been made to date, the Covid 19 pandemic has had an impact on the delivery of the fibre network. The extent of this impact is currently being assessed and NBI has committed to put in place measures to mitigate the impact in as far as possible.
The Covid 19 pandemic has also highlighted the importance of good reliable broadband to ensure that citizens across Ireland can avail of remote working, education and other essential online facilities. This is reflected in the commitments in the Programme for Government where delivery of the National Broadband Plan will be a key enabler to many of the policies envisaged particularly around increased levels of remote working.
The Programme for Government has committed to seek to accelerate the roll out of the National Broadband Plan. In this regard, my Department continues to engage with NBI to explore the feasibility of accelerating aspects of this rollout to establish the possibility of bringing forward premises which are currently scheduled in years 6 and 7 of the current plan to an earlier date. Exploring the potential to accelerate the network rollout is being undertaken in parallel with the measures required to mitigate delays arising as a result of Covid-19.