Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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205. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be rolled out in a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53441/17]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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206. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be rolled out in a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53442/17]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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207. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be rolled out in a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53443/17]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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208. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be rolled out in a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53444/17]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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209. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be rolled out in a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53445/17]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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210. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be rolled out in a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53446/17]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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211. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be rolled out in a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53447/17]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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212. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be rolled out in a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53448/17]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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213. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be rolled out in a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53449/17]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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214. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be rolled out in a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53450/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 206 to 214, inclusive, together.

The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to 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 today over 67% of the 2.3m premises in Ireland have access to high speed broadband and this is set to increase to 77% (1.8m premises) by the end of 2018 and to 90% (2.1m premises) by the end of 2020. 

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 under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

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

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

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

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

The table details percentage of  premises to be covered by the State Intervention and through commercial investment in the areas identified by the Deputy.

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 26 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 roll-out.  My Department will engage with the winning bidder(s) to ensure the most efficient deployment as part of the contract.

In April 2017, I signed a Commitment Agreement with eir in relation to its plans to provide High speed broadband to 300,000 premises in rural areas on a commercial basis. eir has committed to completing the roll-out by the end of 2018.  Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at /.  A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department’s website www.dccae.gov.ie .

Quarterly updates on eir's rural deployment are published on this website. Following evaluation by officials from my Department of eir's Q3 update of its rural deployment of high speed broadband I can confirm that eir has met its Q3 target of 101,000 premises passed.

Prior to the roll-out of the NBP State led intervention, practical initiatives continue to be addressed through the work of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Task force to address obstacles and improve connectivity in respect of existing and future mobile phone and broadband services.

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.