Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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86. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if an update will be provided on the roll-out of the national broadband plan, NBP, in Cork city and county. [9607/22]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister to provide an update on the roll-out of the NBP in Cork city and county.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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There are over 276,000 premises in County Cork of which over 80,600 are within the NBP intervention area and they will receive access to high speed broadband under the NBP. Government investment in County Cork in the NBP will be in the order of €314 million. National Broadband Ireland, NBI, has made steady progress on delivery of the new high-speed fibre broadband network under the NBP. In County Cork surveying is under way in the deployment area of Clonakilty and surveying is complete in the deployment areas of Templemartin, Tallow, Kanturk and Fermoy. Main works are under way in the deployment areas of Midleton and Youghal and network build is complete in the deployment area of Carrigaline.

As of 11 February, over 35,000 premises in County Cork have been surveyed, with over 10,500 premises under construction and there are more than 4,500 premises than can today order a fibre broadband service. I welcome the provision of detailed status reports on the roll-out of high-speed broadband by NBI. My Department has worked closely with NBI to include a page on the NBI website which will provide county statistics updated on a monthly basis, starting in March. Broadband connection points, BCPs, are a key element of the NBP, providing high-speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll-out of the fibre to the home network. As of 11 February 2022, some 22 BCP sites have been installed in County Cork by NBI. In County Cork 15 schools have been installed by NBI to date for educational access and my Department continues to work with the Department of Education to prioritise schools with no high-speed broadband within the intervention area.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Steady progress is being made as the Minister says but there are huge parts of my constituency that are still without broadband and that are waiting for it. We rely on the Internet for so much, including security, education, entertainment and working from home. People who are without broadband are at a distinct disadvantage. I am hearing from my constituents in areas like Blarney, Tower, Kerry Pike, Donoughmore, Glenville and areas of Glanmire that not having broadband has serious implications for them, especially for working from home because they are not able to do so. I have a situation where a man has contacted me and he has no broadband but his neighbours on either side of him on the same street do. In this day and age a lack of broadband has huge consequences and the mismanagement of the scheme so far has had a serious impact on people's daily lives.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I will make a broad point. The NBP is of critical importance and it is hugely important that we have the whole country covered but it is not the only investment that is taking place. There is huge investment taking place in a competitive market with operators like Eir, Virgin Media, SIRO and others. They are chasing after customers and investing all around the country and we are starting to see some of the benefits. The digital economy and society index is one of the key measures in Europe for the digital performance of different countries and it tracks the evolution of how member states are doing. In 2019 Ireland was placed eleventh on that index of European countries and we are now up to fifth as of last year. Some 99% of the country has 4G coverage and our fixed high-capacity network coverage has gone from 35% to 83%. We rank first in the integration of digital technology dimension and we have a leading position in how small businesses are using it. We need to get perspective on this. We need to deliver this faster and we cannot have a situation where on one side of the road someone has coverage but on the other side someone else does not. That is why we have the NBP but we are radically improving and enhancing our digital communications network.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I also want to raise an issue experienced by those waiting for high-speed fibre to the home. Thanks to ComReg’s decision D10/18, Eir will not tell people when they will have high-speed Internet. It will not give people a timeline beyond saying, for example, that it will be in 2026. I fully understand the need for fair competition but some compromise has to be reached on this because there are apartment blocks in the centre of Cork city with over 160 apartments that have no high-speed Internet connection. For those people, who have worked through Covid-19 from home and who could not work through Covid-19 from home, this is a disgrace and it is in the heart of the second city in the State. When these people look to sell their homes they have to tell potential buyers that at some stage in the next four years they will have connectivity, which is not good enough. Covid-19 has completely changed the way we live and if one does not have high-speed broadband, there are serious implications.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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What kind of an understanding exists between the Department, NBI and the commercial operators to guarantee that the commercial operators will service the areas they say they will service? Is there a timescale available from the commercial operators for when they will do this? The Minister mentioned a number of areas in my constituency like Cobh and he said he might come back to me on that. A lot of that is marked blue but we have no idea when the work will be carried out there.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The point I was making to Deputy Gould is that we are seeing fierce competition between the other providers to get to customers because Eir is investing and significantly expanding and as I recall it had an additional 300,000 rural houses that it went to get to. Having done those it is moving to the next block and it is also moving into urban areas because it sees that it is at risk of losing business to the likes of SIRO, which has announced a major expansion in the number of houses it is targeting, as has Virgin Media. Those are just three of the operators so competition is starting to evolve to get to those households. It is in their interests to get to houses as soon as they can for fear of losing that market, particularly in urban areas, to other competitors.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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But there is no timeline.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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It comes down to each individual house and that is how companies plan to roll out the network. In the timeframe that was mentioned we will go to a situation where the vast majority of houses, be they in rural or urban Ireland, will have access to fast fibre-optic cable broadband. That will position us well in the provision of public services, helping small businesses and as the Deputy rightly says, in responding to this Covid time when people can work from home.