Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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99. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in County Cork. [35090/20]

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I apologise to the Minister because we are back to broadband again but I assume over the next few years the Minister will be well used to listening to various Deputy speak about it. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of good and reliable broadband to ensure all citizens can avail of remote working, education and other essential online services. Will the Minister outline the plans for and the fast-tracking of the national broadband plan? Will he make a statement on the matter of the roll-out of the national broadband plan, with particular reference to Cork?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The high-speed broadband map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie, shows the areas in Cork which will be included in the national broadband plan. As of this week almost 122,000 premises across 25 counties have been surveyed by National Broadband Ireland, NBI, which is ahead of the full-year survey target of 120,000 that had been projected by the company. Of this figure, some 16,432 premises have been surveyed to date in Cork. This activity informs design solutions for the provision of the fibre network, and NBI crews have started initial works for the build covering approximately 4,000 premises in the Carrigaline area, including Cullen, Templebreedy, Carrigaline, Ballyfoyle, Douglas, Ballyphehane, Glasheen, Mahon, and Kilpatrick. The first fibre to the home connections are expected next month and they will be subject to technical testing and validation prior to a wider release of the area. I am advised that, from the end of January, retailers will be able to resell the service and householders in these areas will be able to order high-speed broadband provided via the NBI network.

Further details are available on specific areas within Cork through the NBI website, which provides a facility for any premises within the intervention area to register their interest in being provided with deployment updates through its website www.nbi.ie. Individuals who register with this facility will receive regular updates on progress by NBI on delivering the network and specific updates related to their own premises when works are due to commence.

Broadband connection points are a key element of the national broadband plan, 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 and the high-speed broadband service will be switched on in these locations through service provider contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development for publicly available sites, and by the Department of Education for schools. Fifty-nine publicly accessible broadband connection points, BCPs, across the country are now live, with seven of these in County Cork. In addition, Clogagh and Ballycroneen national schools in Cork will also be connected for educational access as part of the BCP initiative.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. My office has been inundated with broadband queries since the onset of this pandemic. My constituents are very frustrated. I often hear from households of five and six people where both parents are working from home and three or four children are trying to continue their studies online, both at second level and third level. It is nearly impossible for them to do this because of their poor Internet connection.

I have made several representations to Eir and NBI but because many of these Eircode postal codes are included in the national broadband plan, I am informed there is nothing that can be done, and I receive a generic response, much to my frustration and that of my constituents. One of my constituents recently remarked: “I work from home using my phone through a hotspot and do not have Wi-Fi fast enough to do my job”. Other constituents drive to nearby public buildings to access basic services and people at home are unable to give their schooling or studies their full attention.

Unfortunately, this is becoming the norm in my constituency. We have all now accepted that the pandemic will be with us for the foreseeable future. Can anything be done for my constituents in the short term or is it simply a case of waiting for the roll-out of the national broadband plan?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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If Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan does not mind, I would like to also respond to what was said earlier by the Ceann Comhairle during a debate on a Topical Issue matter because the case he made is proper and important. We represent our constituents and at this moment in crisis, when people are dependent on these services, for them not to be able to get a response from the companies providing the services is a real issue of concern. Whatever about my comments and those of other Members, the fact that they came from the Ceann Comhairle in the middle of our debate is something I will bring to the attention of ComReg and Eir. This deserves real attention from the company and the regulator.

That said, the challenge that we all recognise is that we need to accelerate this during Covid. Deputy O’Sullivan mentioned the family situation and I can see this in my own home, where there are six of us on various devices, and if anyone cannot get broadband, he or she is cut off. There is a particular challenge in rural areas, where there may often be a distance from the nearest connection, and it is a question of how that is rolled out. It was originally set to be a seven-year project and we are looking to see can we accelerate and shorten that. The vast majority of houses will be delivered in the early years and it will only be the very difficult to reach houses that are being put back to that later date. The incentive for the company now is that the demand is so great, and I hope we can accelerate this project to the best of our ability.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the comments of both the Ceann Comhairle and the Minister. It speaks volumes when the Ceann Comhairle expresses an opinion like that. One need only look at any Twitter account in regard to Eir's customer service. It is nearly legendary at this stage that people are dissatisfied with the level of customer service they receive from that provider in particular.

The elephant in the room is the lack of information for so many people. Many of the requests are common to all of our offices weekly and many of the misgivings and problems people have with their providers could be addressed with more up-to-date information on those providers’ websites. If there was a timeline for various villages, towns and rural areas, so they know broadband will be coming to them in, for example, quarter 1, quarter 2 or quarter 3, it would provide great relief to those people to know that it is coming. I would appreciate it if the Minister could progress this issue.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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At the Estimates committee meeting last week, a number of Deputies echoed Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan's comments by making the point that access to information, particularly in regard to roll-out plans, will be a key issue. I reverted to my Department during the week and we agreed that we need to look again at how we map out some of the work that is going to be done. It is hard at the moment because a lot of the work that is being done is survey work, so we will not know what the actual timeline is until that survey work gives us some broad indication. One way we might approach this is to work through local councils or other agencies to try to make sure there is better communication. People can now register on that nbi.iewebsite but only some 16,000 households have registered thus far. This website will give them updated information on when their house is due to be reached and what the broad timelines are. We can start by trying to promote that, and I am promoting it, to try to give people more information. We will work with the county councils to give them an update and, in that way, help local representatives and Deputies to give a service to their constituents.