Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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198. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason a business (details supplied) in County Meath is not due to receive broadband in the foreseeable future which will impact upon the business in view of the fact that it is unable to increase its number of guests due to a lack of broadband; and when this situation will be addressed. [48580/17]

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 access to high speed broadband and this footprint is expanding.

In April of this year, I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at .

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 NBP. 

The Map is searchable by Eircode/address and is colour coded:

- AMBER areas represent the target areas for the proposed State led Intervention under the NBP and are the subject of an ongoing  procurement process.

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

- Light BLUE areas represent eir's commercial rural deployment plans to rollout high speed broadband to 300,000 premises by the end of 2018, as part of an Agreement signed with me in April.

The map shows that the townland of Kiltale, Co Meath comprises 94 premises and broadband coverage will be realised through a mix of commercial investment and through the State Intervention under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).  Of the 94 premises, 40 premises fall with the State Intervention Area while the remaining 54 premises fall within the BLUE area and will be covered by commercial operators.  Therefore, depending on the eircode of the address the constituent may either be in a BLUE/Light BLUE or AMBER area on the High Speed Broadband Map.

I understand that an official from my Department has provided a detailed report outlining the status of High Speed Broadband availability in the area to the individual named in the Question. While the premises referenced by the Deputy falls within an AMBER area and will be covered through the State led Intervention under the NBP, I understand that there are at least two operators (including mobile and Fixed wireless) that are capable of providing an interim solution.

My Department is in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. That procurement process is now at an advanced stage.  “Detailed Solutions” submitted by two bidders on 26th September are being evaluated by the NBP specialist team. The next stage in the procurement process is the receipt of final tenders followed by the appointment of a preferred bidder(s) and contract signature.

As part of this procurement process, the bidder(s) will be required to submit their strategies, including timescales, for the network build and rollout.  Delivering connectivity to the 542,000 premises that fall within the State led intervention under the NBP remains a Government priority and my Department will engage with the winning bidder(s) to ensure the most efficient deployment as part of the contract.

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, in July 2016, a Taskforce 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 rollout 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 NBP State led intervention.

Under this Taskforce, 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.