National Broadband Ireland (NBI) has made steady progress on delivery of the new high speed fibre broadband network under the National Broadband Plan (NBP). In County Galway surveying is complete in the Deployment Areas of Gurteen, Kilkerrin, Duniry and Lettermore, pre-works are underway in the Deployment Areas of Gort, Athenry, Loughrea and Inverin and network build is complete in the Deployment Areas of Ballinasloe and Galway. To date in County Galway over 21,000 premises have been surveyed, over 8,300 premises are under construction and almost 7,000 premises are now available for order or pre-order.
In line with a remedial plan to address Covid-19 related delays which was agreed with my Department in April 2021, following detailed engagement, NBI had expected to have almost 60,000 premises passed and available for immediate connection by the end of January 2022. As would be expected with a large scale infrastructure build of this nature, challenges were encountered with the build process and also as a result of Covid-19 impacts. NBI continues to work with its network and build partners to address all issues as they arise. Work is underway to re-baseline milestones for 2022 and beyond, with targets for 2022 to be agreed in the coming weeks.
The Department continues to engage with NBI to explore the feasibility of accelerating aspects of the NBP 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. The primary focus, however, must be on addressing the delays which have arisen and ensuring that the National Broadband Ireland build programme gets back on track and is building momentum month on month.
