Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

9. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the way in which the national broadband plan will address gaps in high-speed broadband connectivity in larger towns such as Balbriggan and Skerries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64566/25]

Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The roll-out of national broadband is delivering high-speed fibre to rural and urban communities. It is a success and progress has been made, yet we know that there is partial coverage in some towns and villages. For example, my own hometown of Skerries has partial coverage of fibre broadband and not access to the national fibre broadband. The Minister might give us an update on when we can expect full roll-out of the national broadband plan in all towns and villages.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Government is committed to the rollout of high-speed broadband right across the country. The national broadband plan, NBP, is the Government's initiative to deliver high-speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland where the commercial telecom operators' reach will not extend. In addition to the work being progress by National Broadband Ireland right across the NBP intervention areas, progress is also being made by commercial operators in expanding their next generation networks throughout the State and ensuring the targets set out in the digital connectivity 2022 strategy are achieved.

Skerries is predominantly located in the amber area on the broadband map, which is available on my Department's website. The amber area is to be served by the network deployed under the NBP State-led intervention. Balbriggan is largely in the blue area on the broadband map. The blue area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high-speed broadband services. The Department defines high-speed broadband as a connection with minimum speeds of 30 Mbps download and 6 Mbps upload.

National Broadband Ireland has advised that the majority of premises in Skerries are ready for service, and 2,421 premises in the Skerries deployment area are available to order or pre-order. The remaining premises are currently undergoing survey work and have an anticipated date for connection of October to December 2026. The latest information on when high-speed broadband will become available to premises in the integration area can be found on the website. This website is regularly updated and provides the expected timeline for delivery and status of any works that are initiated at any point in time.

The activities of commercial operators delivering high-speed broadband within blue areas are not planned or funded by the State and the Department has no statutory authority to intervene or report in that regard. However, ComReg provides an online tool on its website to check the available broadband options at a particular address. NBI is bringing fibre broadband to 564,000 premises across the intervention area. The roll-out is divided into 227 deployment areas, each averaging 25 km, although some extend beyond town boundaries due to network design.

Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Minister and welcome his update. I have a concern in relation to the blue area. Part of Skerries is in the blue area as well. The Minister mentioned Balbriggan. The problem with the blue area is that the residents of an estate are being told that unless they come together as a collective of 20 to 50 residents who are willing to sign up with one commercial provider, they will not be able to access the fibre broadband, or it will not be delivered. That is not good enough. It also undermines competition. All the residents have to come together and sign up to one fibre broadband provider. Skerries is 35 minutes from the city centre, and broadband is an absolutely essential infrastructure for businesses, for remote working and for our day-to-day lives. Our lives happen online. I would really appreciate if something can be looked at in terms of the blue area.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Deputy. She is right in relation to the blue area in general. We continue to receive very high volumes of queries with regard to blue areas for high-speed broadband and poor speeds and services and things like that. Notwithstanding the fact that there are issues - if the Deputy wants to give me the particular details with regard to specific parts of Skerries and Balbriggan, I will have the Department look at them - I think people in general will acknowledge that some years ago, when I came into the Dáil first, Taoiseach's Questions, Leaders' Questions, the Order of Business and questions to the Minister were all dominated by broadband. Now I am lucky to get a question once every two or three months with regard to broadband in rural areas and in urban areas as well, which shows that the money allocated by the Government and by Deputy Donohoe in his former role as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has been transformative. If it was not working to the extent that it is in constituencies like my own, we would be inundated with questions. There are issues - I am not saying there are not - but we will work through them. If the Deputy wants to give me the particular details, we will have a look at them.

Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I agree that the roll-out of the national broadband plan has been a success. We just need to make sure that people, families, residents and businesses are not left behind. I will contact the Minister's office in relation to the specific areas.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

There is a Dublin-specific issue we have to address. Fadó fadó when cable television came into people's houses - we did not have that luxury in the country, I do not know whether An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach did and Deputy Ó Snodaigh probably did - they had to break footpaths when they brought in cables and in many cases, left no ducting so there is a significant problem involving ducting in a lot of urban areas, particularly in Dublin, that we will have to address with local authorities. It will cost an awful lot of money. I know it is a particularly big issue in suburban Dublin and, in many cases, prevents the delivery of high-speed broadband. It is probably part of the next generation of problems we will have to fix in suburban areas, particularly in Dublin.

We can see the transformation not only in rural Ireland but in urban Ireland over the past number of years with access to proper telecommunications and connectivity. This is only right. We will continue to work on outages and the problems that are there.