Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
137. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in the Naul area of north County Dublin as of September 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44136/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra138. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in the Oldtown area of north County Dublin as of September 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44137/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra139. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in the Rolestown area of north County Dublin as of September 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44138/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra140. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in the Garristown area of north County Dublin as of September 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44139/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra141. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in the Ballyboughal area of north County Dublin as of September 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44140/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra142. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in the Rush area of north County Dublin as of September 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44141/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra143. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in the Lusk area of north County Dublin as of September 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44142/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra144. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in the Donabate area of north County Dublin as of September 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44143/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 137 to 144, inclusive, together.
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 delivered by 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. There are 652,479 premises in County Dublin of which 635,138 (97.3%) premises are in the BLUE area and 17,341(2.7%) premises are within the AMBER area and will be provided with high speed fibre broadband under the NBP.
I am advised by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) that, as of 26 August 2022, over 85,700 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 24 counties, with over 72,700 premises passed across 23 counties and available for immediate connection. Construction is underway across 26 counties demonstrating that the project is reaching scale To date, the level of connections is increasing on a daily basis and is in line with or exceeding projections. NBI has advised that 1,307 premises in County Dublin are passed with a highspeed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection.
The network rollout for the NBP is divided into 227 Deployment Areas (DAs) across the country. These are typically an area of approximately 25km in radius and in total they cover 96% of Ireland’s landmass. The architecture of the network design is specifically based on the design of the NBI network coming from the eir exchanges or the metropolitan area networks (MANs). It is based on an engineering design that allows NBI to reach every premises as quickly as possible working within the confines of how fibre networks are built. Villages/Townlands/Counties can be covered by a number of DAs which means there are differing timescales for the rollout across county areas.
The areas in North County Dublin referred to in the Questions are covered by a number of DAs detailed below.
|
Townland |
Deployment Area (DA) |
|
Donabate |
Donabate/Portrane |
|
Rolestown |
Donabate/Portrane |
|
Rush |
Donabate/Portrane; Lusk; Skerries |
|
Lusk |
Donabate/Portrane; Lusk; Skerries |
|
Garristown |
Dunshaughlin; Lusk; Drogheda |
|
Ballyboughal |
Donabate/Portrane; Lusk |
|
Naul |
Lusk |
|
Oldtown |
Donabate/Portrane; Lusk; Dunshaughlin |
Further details are available on the specific areas referred to via the NBI website which provides a facility for any premises within the intervention area to register their interest in being provided with deployment updates through its website www.nbi.ie. Individuals who register with this facility will receive regular updates on progress by NBI on delivering the network and specific updates related to their own premises as works commence. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.
NBI has made recent improvements to their website to enhance the provision of information to Oireachtas members. NBI has now completed a suite of changes, creating a portal that will serve as a means for Oireachtas members to proactively search for information relevant to their county/local area. The portal provides an up-to-date picture of NBI’s deployment schedule across the 227 Deployment Areas (DAs) in all 26 counties. A particular county can be selected to view an update of the overall number of premises in the Intervention Area, the overall NBP investment in the county, the number of premises passed and connected to date and the status of each of the Deployment Areas with the anticipated date for connection over the lifetime of the project. The dedicated webpage can be accessed here: www.nbi.ie.
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. As of 28 August 2022, 698 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 accessible sites and the Department of Education for school BCPs. In County Dublin 9 BCPs are installed to date. Further details can be found at nbi.ie/broadband-connection-points/
In County Dublin 6 schools have been installed by NBI to date for educational access. My Department continues to work with the Department of Education to prioritise schools with no high speed broadband, within the Intervention Area. Further details of schools in scope are available on the NBI website atnbi.ie/primary-schools-list/.
