Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

As the Chairman knows, the State has stepped in to ensure homes and businesses that are not receiving the reliability required will be assured of such a broadband service. This will be delivered by the State-led intervention under the National Broadband Plan. As the Chairman knows the contract that underpins this commitment was signed in November 2019 with NBI. NBI is currently well advanced in the design of the network, and it will build and operate this new high-speed, high-quality and reliable broadband network which will see minimum speeds of 500 Mbps available to homes across all of rural Ireland, regardless of how remote those premises may be. This is a commitment that is unique when compared to many other jurisdictions across the world and, when combined with commercial sector investment, will see over 90% of premises across the State served with speeds in excess of 100 Mbps by 2024, coverage that was unimaginable only five years ago.

The Department’s high-speed broadband map shows those premises marked blue. As the Chairman knows, on our map we have the colours blue and amber, with amber representing the intervention area. In the blue areas we understand high-speed broadband services are currently available from the commercial sector, based on information from the sector itself. However, we understand that some homes and businesses have experienced difficulty getting a reliable high-speed broadband service and we are proactively engaged in dealing with any such anomalies to ensure no home or business is left behind.

We are dealing with any such anomalies on a daily basis. It remains open to the Department to bring additional premises into the National Broadband Ireland, NBI, roll-out plan under the contract where no commercial high-speed broadband service is available from any of the commercial operators. NBI’s roll-out will bring an initial minimum standard 500 Mbps service to all premises in the intervention area. It should be noted that this represents an increase from the original 150 Mbps contracted this time last year.

In addition, services of up to 1 Gbps will be available to businesses and other users on request and it is important to note that that is not an "up-to" service but is a guaranteed minimum speed. NBI has made significant progress in 2020 despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is worth noting that to date NBI has surveyed more than 145,000 premises across 26 counties, which continues apace; completed detailed designs for more than 105,000 premises, which is also increasing weekly; installed 220 broadband connection points, which are a key element of the NBP and will provide high speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll-out of the fibre to all of the homes surrounding those broadband connection points, which includes all of the primary schools across the country; and signed contracts with 33 retail service providers who will be selling the services to end-users through the NBI network, which have now directly employed more than 170 people and more than 627 indirectly through its sub-contractors across the country. In addition, an acceleration to the roll-out of high-speed broadband to some 679 schools across the State by the end of 2022, that is within the next two years, was recently announced.

Build work has started in rural parts of counties Cork, Limerick, Cavan and Galway. NBI is currently in its test and trial phase where the first commercial connections will be made by the many retail services providers mentioned earlier in early 2021, with the scale of connections to the network ramping up over the new year.

The need for access to high-speed broadband by all has never been clearer. Recognising this, the programme for Government specifically commits to seek to accelerate the roll-out of the NBP. The programme also recognises that the NBP will be a key enabler to many of the policies envisaged, particularly around increased levels of remote working and remote service delivery.

The Department is currently engaging with NBI to explore the feasibility of accelerating aspects of the NBP roll-out to establish the possibility of bringing forward premises that are currently scheduled in the later years six and seven of the current plan. Any change requires detailed technical, commercial and financial analysis as this is a very complex and significant build of a national network.

NBI has now established a dedicated team to investigate acceleration of the roll-out from its current contracted schedule of seven years and members of my Department are actively working with it on a weekly and daily basis in that regard. However, the immediate priority is to ensure any delays as a result of Covid-19 experienced to date that might arise in 2021 are mitigated to the greatest extent by NBI to ensure the current roll-out timelines are met. NBI is working closely with all its build partners to address the many challenges presented by Covid-19.

The Department is aware that concerns have been raised by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications Networks regarding the level of information available on the deployment of the NBI network. We note from that meeting that NBI has undertaken to carry out further work and to provide more detail on its website, with a rolling update on network build plans covering at least the next 18 months and it is expected that this will be available in the new year. We are hoping to get that done as soon as possible, given the vacuum that seems to be there with the information.

I thank the Committee once again for inviting us and welcome any questions, which we will do our utmost to answer. Where we do not have an immediate answer, we will be more than happy to respond in writing as soon as possible following this session.