Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We are ahead of where we expected to be at the start of the year when we were planning in February. 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. I am advised by NBI that, as of 9 September 2022, more than 331,000 premises are design completed and more than 88,000 premises can order or preorder a high-speed broadband connection. NBI has further advised that more than 75,000 premises across 23 counties have been passed with a high-speed fibre broadband service and are available for immediate connection. Construction is under way across 26 counties, demonstrating that the project is reaching scale. The level of connections is increasing daily and is in line with or exceeding projections from earlier this year.

The Department has worked with NBI to agree an updated interim remedial plan, 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 to be passed by the end of January 2023.

NBI is implementing a number of measures to help lessen the impact that delays have had on the roll-out. Those 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 that the NBI build programme is back on track and is gaining momentum month on month.

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