Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 March 2021
66. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the discussions he or his Department have had to date in 2021 with National Broadband Ireland to date in 2021 in relation to speeding up the roll-out of the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1012/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra77. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the progress being made to accelerate the roll-out of broadband to rural Ireland as committed to in the Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13085/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 66 and 77 together.
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of good reliable broadband to ensure that citizens across Ireland can avail of remote working, education and other essential online facilities. The Programme for Government commits 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.
NBI has established a dedicated team to investigate acceleration of the rollout from its current contracted schedule of seven years. As part of that work NBI is engaging with current build partners (eir and enet) to bring forward build activities and is also actively reviewing other possible build partners such as the ESB where such options could also speed up the build process. 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.
