Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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244. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when broadband will be rolled out to an area in County Kildare (details supplied). [6140/18]

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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245. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when the ESB lines at a location (details supplied) in County Kildare will be upgraded to allow broadband service to the area. [6141/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 244 and 245 together.

The premises referred to by the Deputy is in an AMBER area on my Department’s High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie.  It is therefore be included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

My Department is in a formal procurement process to select a company who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. One company, eir, publicly withdrew from the procurement process on 30 January. While this is regrettable, it is a commercial decision for eir to make.  The specialist NBP procurement team will continue to engage intensively with all relevant stakeholders, including the enet/sse consortium, to ensure the earliest possible achievement of the Government’s objective of providing reliable high quality, high speed broadband to all premises in Ireland. When the procurement process reaches a satisfactory conclusion for Government, a contract will be awarded and the network roll-out will commence.

Prior to the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan State led intervention, practical initiatives will 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.