Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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1431. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will address the concerns of a person (details supplied) regarding broadband in their area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37168/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) will ensure high speed broadband access (minimum 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location.  The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector so that to date approximately 1.5m or 65% of the 2.3m premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband of a minimum of 30 Megabits per second and this footprint is expanding.

In April I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at .  This map shows the areas targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area. The Map is searchable by eircode. 

The BLUE areas on the Map represent those areas where commercial telecommunications providers are either currently delivering, or have indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services and the AMBER areas on the Map represent the areas that will require State Intervention and are the subject of a procurement process.

Also in April, eir signed a agreement with me committing them to follow through on their commercial plans to provide new high speed broadband infrastructure to 300,000 premises in rural areas.  eir has committed to doing this work over a 90-week period with an average of 500 premises passed per day.  Quarterly updates on progress of the eir 300k rollout are published on my Department’s website.  The Quarter 2 2017 figures have been verified by my Department and the eir rollout is in line with the Commitment Agreement.

The address referred to in the Question falls within a LIGHT BLUE area on the High Speed Broadband Map and is covered by eir’s planned rural deployment.  Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available from eir at .  With regard to this rollout, decisions as to when areas and premises are served, is an operational matter for eir. My Department had no input in that process.