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

As ever, it is my honour and pleasure to address the Seanad on what is, I am sure, an important matter of interest to everybody in Ireland.

I reaffirm to the House that the national broadband plan remains a top priority for the Government. I am sure the Seanad strongly supports the overarching objective of the programme to deliver a high-speed broadband fibre network to over 554,000 premises, 1.1 million people, over 100,000 farms and non-farm businesses and some 679 schools. The national broadband plan high-speed broadband map is available on the Department's website at broadband.gov.ie. The amber area represents the area to be served by the network to be deployed under the national broadband plan, NBP, State-led intervention.

The NBP contract was signed with National Broadband Ireland in November 2019 to ensure that 100% of the premises in the State have access to a reliable, high-quality, high-speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 500 Mbps from the outset, and with higher speeds available to businesses.

This plan is the largest infrastructure project in rural Ireland since rural electrification. It spans 96% of Ireland's land mass and it will bring high-speed broadband to 69% of Ireland's total number of farms. It will deliver fast reliable broadband through laying 140,000 km of fibre cable utilising over 1.5 million poles and more than 15,000 km of underground duct networks.

I recognise how vital telecommunications services are to citizens for so many aspects of their daily lives, including remote working, studying and e-health and, more recently, staying in touch with family members during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has caused profound socioeconomic change and has brought to the fore the central role that digital connectivity and technology can play in transforming the way we work and connect with each other. The pandemic has highlighted, now more than ever, the importance of current and future connectivity needs, not only in city centres but also across our suburbs, towns and rural communities. Ireland will be a world leader in fibre broadband roll-out by 2026.

A key principle of the NBP is to support and stimulate commercial investment. Since the publication of the NBP strategy in 2012, the commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €3.3 billion upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high-speed broadband and mobile telecommunications services. Extensive investment plans are in place by a range of operators in commercial areas. Eir has stated it will roll out fibre to the home to a further 1.6 million premises in urban areas, bringing its overall fibre-to-the-home deployment to approximately 1.9 million premises. Meanwhile, SIRO is currently completing the first phase of its fibre deployment. To date, it has passed more than 400,000 premises with gigabit services. It has recently announced plans to extend that network to an additional 320,000 premises. Virgin Media Ireland has also recently announced a €200 million investment to upgrade its broadband network to full fibre to the more than 1 million premises the company covers over the next three years. Many other network operators and telecommunications service providers across the State also continue to invest in their networks.

Today, more than 2.4 million or 77% of premises in Ireland can access commercially available high-speed broadband services of more than 30 Mbps. In the 2021 digital economy and society index, DESI, for the 27 EU countries, Ireland performed well. It ranked fifth with a score of 60.3, which is well above the EU average of 50.7. NBI will address the remaining premises through the national broadband plan State intervention.

As recently as six years ago, Ireland had a fibre-to-the-home, FTTH, network covering less than 1% of the 1.7 million broadband subscriptions. Latest figures from ComReg for quarter 3 of 2021 showed that FTTH subscriptions are now at 340,000 or 20% of the 1.7 million subscriptions and growing. This upward trajectory has been achieved through a combination of commercial investment and State intervention.

NBI commenced connections to the new fibre network in January 2021, just 12 months ago. As of today, over 54,000 premises are available for order and pre-order for high-speed fibre broadband across 21 counties, including Carlow, Clare, Cavan, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Monaghan, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow.

NBI has advised that over 154,000 premises are constructed or under construction, demonstrating that the project is reaching scale. Over 5,400 premises have been connected as of 14 January and this figure is increasing weekly. To date, the level of connections is in line with projections and in some areas it is exceeding expectations.

While substantial progress has been made to date, the Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on the delivery of the fibre network, resulting in delays in the delivery of aspects of the programme. Impacts include challenges with the mobilisation of key contractors, restrictions on operations and supply chain, as well as logistical delays, both nationally and internationally. In addition, there have been challenges with the recruitment of key personnel as NBI and its contractors scale up, including challenges associated with on-boarding and training people. Like all of us, NBI and contractor staff are at risk of contracting Covid-19 or may have had to restrict their movements as a result of being a close contact. This impact continues to be felt due to the current more contagious Omicron variant.

With a project of the scale of the NBP, it can be difficult for media commentary to fully communicate the scale of activity or work completed in terms of delivery of the NBP. I will share with Senators some details of what has been achieved against the backdrop of challenging circumstances brought about by the pandemic to date. Some 6 million m of cable has been installed; 25,000 telegraph poles have been remediated or newly installed; 152,000 premises have been submitted to Open Eir for make-ready; 250 section 254 applications have been submitted across all 31 local authorities, with 154 approved; 38 deployment area designs have been approved by the Department; over 150,000 premises in 45 deployment areas across 26 counties are either under build or build-completed; six deployment areas are now fully build-completed, with four more deployment areas nearing completion; three island deployment areas with build are under way; 26 local exchange sites with Nokia equipment installed are ready for network connectivity; there are 54,000 premises available to order or pre-order across 21 counties, as well as three islands off the coast of Donegal; there are 34,417 premises available to order by 31 January 2022; 7,355 orders have been received by retail service providers; 5,477 connections have been completed across 11 counties, with 1,300 connections made in December 2021 alone; 453 broadband connection points have been installed; and 50 retail service providers, RSPs, have been contracted, with 34 of those on-boarded.The ongoing investment in the roll-out is also creating employment opportunities. There are 292 direct employees and 911 indirect employees working with build and design contractors. They are now employed on foot of the NBP investment, with this number rising weekly as construction activity ramps up.

Broadband connection points, BCPs, are a key element of the NBP. They are located in areas of community importance, allowing local residents to quickly get free public access to high-speed broadband in advance of fibre deployment under the national broadband plan. BCPs are a key support for promoting balanced regional development as part of a sustainable and equitable post-pandemic recovery and will enable rural communities to avail of the opportunities presented by the digital economy. BCPs have been developed to become digitally enabled community assets. Activities currently under way include: the establishment of remote working facilities at a significant number of locations; remote e-health consultation booth pilot projects; digital skills training for children and young people and; a national BCP film festival that will be screened at BCPs.

As of 14 January, some 453 BCP sites in total have been installed by NBI and 255 of the publicly available sites are now connected with high-speed broadband service through a service provider contract with Vodafone. As part of this initiative, primary school BCPs are also being provided with high-speed broadband, for educational use, through service provider contracts managed by the Department of Education. To date, 185 schools have been installed, out of the total of 453 BCP sites, with high-speed broadband for educational access and 99 schools are now connected. An acceleration of this aspect of the national broadband plan will see some 679 schools connected to high-speed broadband well ahead of the original target delivery timeframe of 2026.

The House will also be aware of recent commentary on the ownership structure of NBI and parliamentary questions answered by me on this in the Dáil in December. I can confirm that the ownership structure of NBI remains as advised to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications at contract award in November 2019 and at the effective date of the contract on 9 January, 2020. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has rights of consent under the project agreement in respect of changes in ownership and NBI must notify the Minister in advance of any such event arising. There have been no subsequent notifications of changes to ownership or control.

With large-scale projects of this nature, it is usual that the investors' investment in the project is structured through tiered holding companies. NBI applies the highest standards to its corporate governance and the structures adopted by it are typical of investments in critical infrastructure not only in Ireland but globally where investors of international reach and scale are involved. As the roll-out progresses, I will ensure that Senators are kept up to date. The Department will continue to arrange Oireachtas stakeholder information sessions for Deputies and Senators. I am pleased to note that some 21 sessions were facilitated in the past six months or so.

Citizens can also obtain information on specific areas in the intervention area through the NBI website. This site 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 relating to their own premises as works commence.

Furthermore, NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries. NBI has recently published details of its full deployment schedule on its website which enables all premises within the intervention area to have an anticipated service activation date range.