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

The survey and design work for the new high-speed fibre broadband network under the national broadband plan is complete or ongoing by National Broadband Ireland, NBI, in every county in Ireland. Survey work feeds into detailed designs for each of the 227 deployment areas. I am advised by NBI that as at 20 May 2022, last month, over 327,600 premises have now been surveyed, more than 298,600 premises are designed or in design process, and more than 175,300 premises are under construction or complete across 26 counties, demonstrating that the project is reaching scale. I am further advised that almost 67,700 premises are now available to order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 23 counties, with over 56,600 premises passed across 22 counties and available for immediate connection and almost 11,900 premises connected, demonstrating the project continues to gain momentum.

The Department has worked with NBI to agree an updated interim remedial plan, UIRP, which recalibrated the targets for 2022 to take account of the knock-on effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and other delays to the programme. The revised target is 102,000 premises passed by the end of January next year. NBI is implementing a number of measures to help lessen the impact that delays have had on the roll-out. Such measures include increasing the rate of pole replacement and duct remediation per month, bringing in additional NBI resources, earlier procurement of materials used in the build stages and bringing in additional subcontractors.

The focus will continue to be on ensuring the National Broadband Ireland build programme is back on track and is gaining momentum month on month.

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