Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

87. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views on whether rural communities and rural houses are being pitted against each other as a result of the way in which sites were selected for broadband upgrade; and his further views on the cherry picking nature of a company (details supplied) in selecting the best sites. [49081/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

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.

As the Deputy may be aware, in April, I signed a Commitment Agreement with eir in relation to its plans to provide high speed broadband to an additional 300,000 premises, predominantly in rural areas on a commercial basis.  A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department's websitewww.dccae.gov.ie. 

Decisions by private telecommunication operators, relating to the rollout and siting of infrastructure to provide high speed broadband services, are undertaken on a commercial basis by competing service providers operating in a liberalised market.  The decision as to what areas and premises are served as part of their rural deployment is a commercial decision for eir as a private operator and not one in which I have a statutory role.

In order to ensure all premises regardless of location have access to high speed broadband, my Department is engaged in an on-going procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out the new high speed broadband network for the State led intervention. The 542,000 premises in the State led intervention, the majority in rural locations, are categorised as AMBER in the High Speed Broadband Map which can be accessed via www.broadband.gov.ie. 

A significant milestone in the procurement process was reached in September with the submission of Detailed Solutions by two bidders. These Detailed Solutions are currently being evaluated by the NBP specialist team. This is the last stage of the procurement process before receipt of final tenders and progression to the appointment of a preferred bidder(s).

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.