Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 March 2024
108. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the progress to date with the roll out of the National Broadband Plan throughout County Cavan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11121/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn December 2022, my Department published Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy which supports the ambition outlined in the National Digital Strategy and sets out a number of ambitious targets, including that:
• all Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028;
• all populated areas will be covered by 5G no later than 2030, and
• digital connectivity will be delivered to all schools and broadband connection points by 2023.
These targets will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and through the State investment in National Broadband Ireland (NBI).
The Digital Connectivity Strategy will lead to more balanced regional development, supporting the green transition, facilitating greater access to regional talent and skills and will assist with the implementation of the Government’s Remote Working Strategy, Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy 2021-2025, and Project Ireland 2040.
Commercial operators’ fibre rollouts are progressing at pace. Open eir have already passed over 18,400 homes and businesses in Cavan with gigabit services, with plans to pass a further c.7,600 homes and businesses over the next 2 – 3 years, bringing their total fibre-based investment in the county to over €13m. Other commercial operators are also continuing to increase their network footprint right across Cavan, with SIRO recently passing over 4,400 premises for full fibre.
Along with the progress made by commercial operators’ in expanding their next generation networks throughout the State, the National Broadband Plan intervention contract provides for the roll out of a high speed and future-proofed broadband network to primarily rural areas. The intervention area covers over 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, over 218,200 premises are passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. Over 71,400 premises are already connected to the NBP high-speed broadband network. In the Deputy’s own county of Cavan, over 5,500 premises are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and 6,760 available to order/pre-order, with 1,896 premises now connected.
The forecast in County Cavan for the end of 2024 is an additional 3,700 Premises being Passed, which is over 10,000 Premises being able to order High Speed Broadband in County Cavan.
This represents circa 60% of the Premises in the IA being completed in County Cavan by the end of 2024.
Further details are available on specific areas within County Cavan can be monitored 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.
Recent ComReg data shows that Quarter 3 of 2023, saw a 7.62% increase in fibre broadband subscriptions compared to Qtr 2, 2023, and a 33.83% increase when compared to Quarter 3 of 2022. This demonstrates that the take-up of fibre connectivity for homes and businesses is increasing greatly as the services are deployed to areas where they had previously been unavailable. This demonstrates that take-up of fibre connectivity for homes and businesses is increasing substantially as it is deployed to areas where it had previously been unavailable.
The same ComReg data also indicates that c. 40% of homes and business throughout the State now have access to gigabit services through either fibre (619,968) or cable (354,074) infrastructure.
