Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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163. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to provide modern and up to date broadband telecommunications infrastructure in an area (details supplied); if consideration will be given to the request of the local community to have the telecoms infrastructure updated due to the needs of local business and households; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43146/17]

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 www.broadband.gov.ie. 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 include premises to be served under eir's rural broadband deployment to 300,000 premises by the end of 2018 (shown as LIGHT BLUE areas on the MAP) 

-The AMBER areas on the Map represent the areas that will require State Intervention and are the subject of a procurement process.

The map shows that premises in the village of Crosskeys, Co Cavan and its general catchment area will be realised through a mix of commercial investment and through the State Intervention under the National Broadband Plan.

Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available from eir at/. Citizens can access this website to determine the connectivity availability status for their premises using their eircode. 

My Department is engaged in an on-going procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network for the State led intervention. A significant milestone in that procurement process was reached last month with the submission of "Detailed Solutions" by two bidders, This is the last stage of the procurement process before receipt of final tenders and ultimate progression to the appointment of a preferred bidder(s).

To improve both mobile and broadband services in rural Ireland in advance of the rollout of the high speed broadband network to be built in the State intervention area, I established a Taskforce to identify immediate solutions to mobile phone and broadband coverage deficits and investigate how better services could be provided to consumers. These solutions will enhance the existing services prior to the full build and rollout of the network planned under the National Broadband Plan State intervention.