Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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8. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his interim solutions for householders in rural areas waiting on broadband that is some years away under the national broadband plan; if he will provide further details of the efforts to accelerate the roll-out of national broadband; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55327/22]

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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What is the Minister of State's interim solution for householders in rural areas waiting on broadband that is some years away under the national broadband plan, NBP? Will he provide further details of the efforts to accelerate the roll-out of national broadband, and will he make a statement on it?

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I am advised by National Broadband Ireland, NBI, that, as of 28 October 2022, more than 97,000 premises can order or preorder a high-speed broadband connection, with in excess of 87,700 premises passed and available for immediate connection. Construction is under way across all 26 counties, demonstrating that the project is reaching scale. To date, the level of connections is increasing daily and is in line with or exceeding our expectations. I am advised that 3,334 premises in County Louth are now available to order or preorder a connection.

Broadband connection points, BCPs, 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. Some 778 BCP sites have been installed by NBI to date, 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 accessible sites and the Department of Education for school broadband connection points.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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There are many black spots in County Louth that need urgent attention. It is creating a divide between rural and urban areas. It is also costing small businesses jobs. It is stopping people from working from home. Households and businesses cannot wait for years. Several people have come to my constituency office saying they cannot continue to survive. I cannot understand why they are not connected to this essential broadband service.

A business family has told me that, according to the national website, they are scheduled for June 2024. In this day and age, they do not think that is very fair. I do not use the words "black spot" lightly. It is 2022 and for these people to wait another two years does not seem fair. I appreciate a lot of work has been done in recent years. In 2007, it was suggested we put in broadband the same way we put in the ESB network. It was not done and people laughed at it. In this day and age, there should be no black spots in County Louth.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The way the NBP contract works is that the contractor is paid only when it connects 100% of an area. Every single home in a deployment area has to be connected for the contractor to get its payment, which is different from what happens in the urban areas. As the rural areas are connected, there will be no black spots in them. The urban areas are where I am concerned about black spots. I am the Minister of State with responsibility for broadband in all of Ireland, not just the rural areas. The NBP is there to remove that urban-rural divide.

As the Deputy said, broadband is vital for working from home, creating jobs in villages and towns throughout the country, and to allow people study from home and have their work-life balance and communications and so on. Therefore, I understand how critical it is. Louth has double the average rate of connection for Ireland. It is the number one county for connections for rural broadband. I believe 37% of rural homes in Louth have been passed, which is twice the average overall, so it is doing very well.

For a person who is waiting and absolutely needs something a year before the connection is delivered, the options are fixed wireless access, 5G or satellite connections. It is a seven-year contract and that means some people will be connected in years 6 or 7. I am working on reducing that number down to five years.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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The last thing we want to do, especially in County Louth, is to drive people away from the countryside. It is bad enough having local needs and people not being able to build on their land along with everything else. It is very frustrating. People come to me knowing there are households and companies down the road from them that have broadband installed and ask me what is going on. I understand the Minister of State has said Louth is one of the best for connections, but to me it is not for the simple reason that there still many black spots. I know the Minister of State hates that term. How can I go back to those people and convince them to stick it out? Many of these people living in rural Ireland are talking about going back to work because it is too expensive to stay in rural Ireland and it is costing them a lot of money. The Minister of State is aware there is an energy crisis ongoing. When I go back to my constituency office on Friday, what will I tell the people who ask me what they are supposed to do if they do not have broadband in their area?

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy Ó Murchú has a supplementary question.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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We are in a better place in the context of hitting targets. The Minister of State has said it is a seven-year project. There are still people who are several years away from getting broadband. We know part of the real solution lies with Eir, in that its make-ready product needs to be provided to NBI. The other thing is the possibility of the self-install product that NBI is looking to get off Eir. I understand there may be legal issues that need to be dealt with.

The Minister of State said he was looking at the possibility of a five-year project. I have been led to believe the acceleration time would be six years. Will the Minister of State provide information on that? The other question is whether people could be provided with alternatives, be it low Earth orbit satellite systems or wireless.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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You will have a supplementary question.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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ComReg or the mobile phone and broadband task force could do this.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I want to talk about householders in Carlow who contact me every day. A homeowner contacted NBI, the Department and me several times regarding concerns about the change of ownership before a project was completed. He believes he will be forgotten. The original contract specified 200,000 connections by the end of January 2022. The man lives on Coppinaugh Road in Tullow. There are 34 houses on a 3 km stretch of road which is not served by broadband. His area was surveyed two years ago and he was meant to be connected in 2015. I have repeatedly supplied his Eircode and asked for help. What is happening? I raised this with the Minister of State recently. People are becoming disillusioned. It is important that the broadband roll out is done right. I ask the Minister of State to look into the cases I have raised with him as soon as possible.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Starting with Louth, as I said, 3,334 homes out of 8,837 have been passed, making it the number one county in Ireland for connections. For those who need connection and do not yet have it, and have been waiting for three or more years, we have provided information on the website. We want to be honest and let people know they will have to make other arrangements. The three technologies available are fixed wireless access, 5G or satellite connection for somebody who needs to have something and cannot have fibre to a cabinet or whatever is being provided at the moment.

In response to Deputy Ó Murchú, I am considering various options including speeding up Eir Make Ready, self install and so on to see what we can do to reduce the time. I expect to have an announcement on that soon.

In response to Deputy Murnane O'Connor, I acknowledge that she has come to me a number of times on a particular case. I will come back to her. I have been to Carlow and went to connect the 15,000th customer. I commit to helping the Deputy with each customer she mentioned.