Written answers

Wednesday, 19 October 2016

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

National Broadband Plan Administration

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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158. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if upgrade works on the national broadband scheme will take place in Stackallen, County Meath. [31023/16]

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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159. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if upgrade works on the national broadband scheme will take place in Smithstown, Julianstown, County Meath. [31025/16]

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 158 and 159 together.

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority.  This is being achieved through private investment by commercial telecommunications companies and through a State intervention in areas where commercial investment is not forthcoming.

The procurement process aims to identify an entity or entities to build, roll-out, operate and deliver high speed broadband of at least 30 Mbps download and 6 Mbps upload speeds to all premises within the intervention area.  Last week, I announced that the three bidders in the procurement process have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution for rural Ireland under the National Broadband Plan intervention.  Householders and businesses may potentially get speeds not just of 30Mbps but up to 1Gbps with businesses potentially availing of symmetrical upload and download speeds. This is a solution that will endure for 25 years and beyond and put Ireland to the forefront internationally in terms of connectivity. 

The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at shows the extent of the State Intervention area:

- The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have previously indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services. 

- The areas marked AMBER on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the target areas for the State Intervention which are the subject of the current procurement process.

The map provides information on a county by county basis with a breakdown of coverage across the townlands in every county including Co Meath. Individuals can check whether their premises is in a BLUE or an AMBER area by scrolling through the map online or entering their Eircode. The Department also has a dedicated mailbox and anyone with a query in relation to the Map should email the Department, quoting their Eircode, to

The townlands of Stackallen, Smithstown and Julianstown are included in the AMBER area and  are therefore included in the procurement process. Over 750,000 premises are within the State intervention area. This includes over 31,000 premises in County Meath.

The Department is now in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network to the over 750,000 premises in Ireland, covering 100,000km of road network and 96% of the land area of Ireland. Since bidders were invited to participate in dialogue with the Department, there have been approximately 150 hours of meetings, with considerable more interaction to follow over the coming months.  The procurement process is being intensively managed, to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland, for at least 25 years and deals conclusively with connectivity issues in rural areas, and areas such as Stakallen, Smithstown and Julianstown.

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