Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 April 2023
130. Deputy Frankie Feighan asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will report on the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan; the number of premises that were passed and connected as of March 2023; the way that he plans to accelerate the delivery of the plan and if he could provide, in particular, connection details for counties Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Donegal. [19758/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Broadband Plan (NBP) state led intervention is being delivered by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) under a contract, signed in November 2019 and which came into effect in January 2020, 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 over 560,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with some 679 schools.
I am advised by NBI that, as of 14 April 2023 over 147,600 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 26 counties, with over 135,500 premises passed and available for immediate connection. Over 37,300 premises are connected to the NBP Gigabit network.
Details are available on specific counties via nbi.ie/reps. A county update can be selected to provide 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. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.
Strategic Connection Points (SCPs) 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 14 April 2023, 895 SCP sites (283 Broadband Connection Points, which are publicly accessible sites, and 612 schools) have been installed 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. Further details can be found at nbi.ie/bcp-map/.
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 at nbi.ie/primary-schools-list/.
Eir has committed to rolling out fibre to some 1.9 million premises. SIRO has passed more than 470,000 premises with gigabit services and has recently announced plans to extend its network to an additional 300,000 premises. Virgin Media plans to bring gigabit broadband upgrades to 1 million premises. The network operators and telecom service providers across the State also continue to invest in their networks.
