Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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984. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to a recently published report (details supplied) on the national broadband plan which claims that current levels of resources suggest delivery in counties such as County Donegal will not be completed until 2025 or 2026; the initiatives that are being taken to address this potential delay in the rolling out of the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46477/17]

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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985. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if county level targets and milestones will be published to help offset future delays in the roll-out of the national broadband plan; if resources and training requirements for additional personnel to support the objectives and timeframes of the plan will be made available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46478/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 984 and 985 together.

The report to which the Deputy refers has quite a broad focus and one of the areas it discusses is the State led intervention under the Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP). As the Deputy will be aware, the NBP is being achieved via a mix of commercial investment by the telecommunications sector and a State led intervention in those areas where commercial providers acting alone will not provide this essential service. 

In relation to the NBP, I note that the report recommends that the Local Authorities, for whom the report was commissioned, "should fully embrace what is a remarkable plan". Representatives from ICBAN have requested a meeting with my Department to discuss the report and I am happy to confirm to the Deputy that a meeting is being arranged.

The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) will ensure high speed broadband access (minimum download 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location.  The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecommunications sector so that to date approximately 1.5m or 65% of the 2.3m premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband and this footprint is expanding. By 2020 it is expected that 90% of premises in Ireland will have access to high speed broadband. 

The Government is determined to ensure that the network is built out as quickly as possible and at a minimum cost. As part of the competitive process in awarding a contract(s) under the State led Intervention, my Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best roll-out strategy, in order to target areas of particularly poor service, business needs and/or high demand. This will need to be balanced with the most efficient network roll-out plan. A prioritisation programme will support this process, in consultation with the Minister for Rural and Community Development. 

In addition, the Department of Rural and Community Development has established two Regional Action Groups, working with all Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Offices and other relevant agencies. It has also provided funding to support each Local Authority to appoint a Broadband Officer.  The Regional Action Groups will help accelerate the broadband network build in rural Ireland, once a contract(s) has been awarded, by ensuring that there are no local barriers to deployment and by identifying priority areas for roll-out. The Broadband Officers are acting as single points of contact in local authorities for their communities.  The appointment of these officers is already reaping rewards in terms of ensuring a much greater degree of consistency in engagements with operators and clearing obstacles to developing infrastructure

In April of this year, I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map, searchable by eircode.  The map is available at www.broadband.gov.ie.The 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 under the National Broadband Plan (NBP). 

The map shows that there are over 101,200 premises in County Donegal, about 68,000 of which fall within a BLUE area of the Map and will be covered by commercial operators.  Just over 16,500 of these 68,000 premises form part of eir's planned rural deployment to deliver rural high speed broadband between now and the end of 2018. .Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at The remaining 33,000 premises in County Donegal fall within an AMBER area and will be part of the State led Intervention under the National Broadband Plan.

The procurement process for the State led Intervention comprising some 540,000 premises and represented as AMBER on my Department’s High Speed Broadband Map is progressing.  My Department is currently evaluating the "Detailed Solutions" submitted by two bidders in September.  This is the last stage in the procurement process before seeking final tenders and progression to the appointment of a preferred bidder(s).

Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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986. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding fibre broadband; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46500/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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In April I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map, available at www.broadband.gov.ie , which outlines how premises around the country will be able to access a high speed broadband service. Premises are separated by colour into 3 categories.

- The AMBER areas on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the areas that will require State Intervention.

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

- LIGHT BLUE areas are part of eir’s planned rural deployment of high speed broadband to 300,000 premises.

The Castlemaine Community Centre is in a BLUE area. BLUE areas are parts of the country where commercial operators are already providing high speed broadband or have indicated plans to do so.  While I have no statutory authority to intervene in the day to day operations of commercial operators, my Department is collating information in relation to individual cases where commercial plans to provide access to high speed broadband to premises within a BLUE area do not materialise.  I would encourage the manager of Castlemaine Community Centre to provide my Department Broadband@dccae.gov.ie with details of the attempts made by the centre to access a high speed broadband connection, with a view to my Department engaging further on this issue.

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. Where commercial plans to provide access to high speed broadband to premises within a BLUE area do not materialise, it is my intention that the implementation of the National Broadband Plan will ultimately overcome these issues and that all premises will be able to access high-speed broadband services.

To improve both mobile and broadband services in rural Ireland in advance of the roll-out of the high speed broadband network to be built in the State intervention area, I established, in July 2016, a Task force to identify solutions which can be implemented in the short, medium and long term to alleviate mobile phone and broadband coverage deficits, to identify priority areas for roll-out and investigate how better services could be provided to consumers. These solutions will enhance the existing services prior to the full build and roll-out of the network planned under the NBP State led intervention.

Under this Task force, engagement between telecommunications operators and local authorities through the Broadband Officers is continuing to strengthen.  These Broadband Officers are acting as single points of contact in local authorities for their communities.  The appointment of these officers is already reaping rewards in terms of ensuring a much greater degree of consistency in engagements with operators and clearing obstacles to developing infrastructure.  There is a link to a list of these local Broadband Officers on my Department's website.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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987. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in relation to counties Cavan and Monaghan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46621/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I refer to the reply to Question No. 235 of 26 October 2017. The position is unchanged.