Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I remember the Topical Issue matter. I hope to get the placenames right in this case, rather than including west Kildare in my east Kildare line-up. My response is similar to the one I gave earlier in response to a Topical Issue matter.

The national broadband plan, NBP, intervention areas are set out as those areas that cannot be met by targeted commercial operators. Premises in the amber area in the map will be provided with high-speed broadband through State-led intervention, the contract for which was signed last November with National Broadband Ireland, NBI. The blue area on the map represents those areas where commercial providers are currently delivering or have plans to deliver a high-speed broadband services. The NBP will offer users a high-speed broadband service with speeds of 500 Mbps from the outset. This service will reach over 90% of all premises in the country. This is expected to be delivered within the next four years.

Details on east Kildare are available through the NBI website, www.nbi.ie, which provides a facility for any premises within the intervention area to register its interest in being provided with deployment updates. Individuals who register with this facility will receive regular updates on progress on delivering in their local areas and specific updates on their own premises. I am advised by NBI that, as of 4 November 2020, almost 122,000 premises across 25 counties have been surveyed, which is ahead of target.

Surveys have been completed in the following areas across County Kildare: Killashee, Oughterard, Naas rural, Rathmore, Eadestown, Kill, Kilteel, Carnalway, Gilltown, Ballymore Eustace, Bodenstown, Naas urban, Newtown and Donaghcumper. The next step is for National Broadband Ireland to develop network designs to deliver the new fibre to the home network to these premises, followed by pre-build and build works.

Broadband connection points are a key element of the national broadband plan, NBP, providing high speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll-out of the fibre to the home network. As of 30 October, 187 sites have been installed with service provider contracts being done by the Department of Rural and Community Development for publicly available sites and by the Department of Education for schools.

Rathmore National School and St. David's National School in County Kildare will be connected for educational access as part of this initiative by the end of the year. My Department continues to work with the Department of Education to prioritise other schools with no high speed broadband within the intervention area for connection over the term of the national broadband plan.

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