Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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494. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the actions being taken to ensure that commercial operators follow through on their commitments to deliver high speed broadband services to areas marked in blue and light blue on the high speed broadband map; the deadline within which such works must be completed by commercial operators; the estimated completion dates for each blue and light blue area in each county, in tabular form; if there is a provision for redesignation of these areas as State intervention areas if the services are not delivered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3323/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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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. Under the terms of this Commitment Agreement, eir has committed to passing these premises by the end of 2018. The number of premises to be passed every quarter is set out in the Commitment Agreement, a copy of which is available on my Department’s website www.dccae.gov.ie.

Estimated deployment dates are provided for eir’s rural deployment on its website www.fibrerollout.ie. Individuals can themselves check deployment dates for their area by entering their eircode into the roll out map available on the website.

As per the obligations of the Commitment Agreement, officials from my Department meet with eir on a monthly basis to review the company’s performance. The purpose of these review meetings is for eir to report progress against each sub-milestone task and also to identify any risks or issues and their associated risk mitigation plans. These sub-milestones cover the tasks that are required to deliver high speed broadband to premises within the Planned Rural Deployment area. A detailed definition of each sub-milestone is provided in the Commitment Agreement. As of Q3 2017 eir had met all milestones laid out under the Commitment Agreement, having passed over 101,000 premises. Information submitted for Q4 have not yet been verified by the Department. 

There is provision within the Commitment Agreement for the re-designation of the LIGHT BLUE areas as State intervention areas. The Commitment Agreement provides me with the right to change the Intervention area and incorporate premises from the LIGHT BLUE area into the AMBER area where eir fail to fulfil their obligations under the Agreement.

While there is no commitment agreement in place with commercial operators for the BLUE areas of the High Speed Broadband Map, my Department continues to monitor deployment progress and any issues that arise.  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 NBP will overcome these issues and that all premises will be able to access high-speed broadband services.