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National Broadband Plan

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 March 2022

Tuesday, 29 March 2022

Ceisteanna (196)

Duncan Smith

Ceist:

196. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the reason that all houses in the Burrow peninsula, Portrane, County Dublin have not been included in the National Broadband Plan intervention area (details supplied). [15928/22]

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Freagraí scríofa

The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie, shows the areas which will be included in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) State led intervention as well as areas targeted by commercial operators. The map is colour coded and searchable by address and Eircode. Premises in the AMBER area will be provided with high speed broadband through the State led Intervention, the contract for which was signed in November 2019 with National Broadband Ireland (NBI). The BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services. This includes the premises referred to in the Question located in the Burrow Peninsula which are located in the BLUE area and will be delivered with high speed broadband by commercial providers operating in the area.

In July 2019, in order to finalise the mapping exercise required under the State Aid Guidelines on Broadband and to ensure the NBP High Speed Broadband Map was up to date, my Department conducted a consultation in relation to the High Speed Broadband Map. This consultation sought submissions from operators who wished to have their existing high speed broadband networks or plans to invest in high speed broadband networks over the following 7 years to be included on the Department’s High Speed Broadband Map.

This consultation was part of a significant engagement with industry initiated in July 2013 where my Department engaged in an extensive process of mapping and monitoring broadband availability in Ireland. This has been supported by a number of public consultations conducted from 2013 to 2019. As part of the 2019 consultation, over 180 submissions were received from a variety of stakeholders including 30 from large and small telecoms operators with the remainder from local authority broadband officers and members of the public. All operator submissions were fully assessed against my Department’s published assessment criteria and operators were informed of the outcome of this assessment in November 2019. The mapping exercise was conducted across all counties, including Dublin, to ensure the map is up to date.

My Department defines high speed broadband as a connection with minimum speeds of 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload. Commercial operators have indicated their plans to supply Gigabit services to all premises in the BLUE area of the NBP Map by 2026. Under State aid rules, my Department is not permitted to displace commercial investment by intervening in areas where commercial investment exists or is planned, as to do so would be an infringement of these State aid rules. The activities of commercial operators delivering high speed broadband within BLUE areas are not planned or funded by the State and my Department has no statutory authority to intervene in that regard.

Complaints about service provision are a matter to be dealt with between the consumer and the service provider in the first instance. If this avenue has been exhausted without a satisfactory resolution, the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) may be able to assist further. ComReg is the independent body that issues licences to broadband service providers and investigates complaints to ensure that companies are delivering services in line with their licence obligations.

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