Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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74. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to the significant number of households and businesses waiting on the national broadband plan in counties Cavan, Monaghan and Meath and of the negative impacts this is having on daily lives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7420/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I am very much aware that there are significant numbers of homes, businesses, farms and schools throughout the country awaiting connection to high speed broadband and I understand peoples frustration and the challenges they face in this regard. As I have said many times, delivering high speed broadband to each of these premises is a personal commitment from me and remains a key priority of Government. 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. 7 out of 10 of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland now have access to high speed broadband.  By the end of this year that number will rise to nearly 8 out of 10 premises and by 2020, 9 out of 10 premises or 90% of premises will have access to a high speed broadband connection. This will be achieved via a combination of commercial investment and a State led intervention.

The High Speed Broadband Map on my Department's website https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/communications/topics/Broadband/national-broadband-plan/high-speed-broadband-map/Pages/Interactive-Map.aspx 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 rollout high speed broadband to 300,000 premises by the end of this year as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with my Department last April.

The following table outlines the number of premises in Cavan, Monaghan and Meath which fall into these categories.

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. That procurement process is now at an advanced stage and when the procurement process reaches a satisfactory conclusion for Government, a contract will be awarded and the network rollout will commence.

In the interim, practical initiatives will continue to be addressed through the work of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce to address obstacles and improve connectivity in respect of existing and future mobile phone and broadband services.

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.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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75. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of his commitment to provide high speed broadband to each house and business in County Donegal; the deadline for same; the number of homes and business which have access to high speed broadband; the number of additional homes and businesses which received access to high speed broadband in 2017; the number which will receive access in 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7333/18]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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78. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the impact that a company (details supplied) pulling out of the national broadband plan tender process will have on the commitment to provide high speed broadband to every house and business in County Donegal; the number of homes and businesses which currently have access to high speed broadband; the number of homes and businesses which received access to high speed broadband in 2017; the number which will receive access in 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7298/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 75 and 78 together.

Delivering high speed broadband to every home, every business, every farm and every school in Ireland is a personal commitment for me and remains a key priority of Government.

Currently just over 55,000 or 55% of the approximately 101,000 premises in County Donegal have access to a high speed broadband service. Every single one of the remaining 46,000 (46%) premises that lack this service will be served under the Government's National Broadband Plan; some 12,000 by commercial investment, the remaining 34,000 by the planned State led intervention.

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 reconfirmed this committment to completing the rollout by the end of this year.  Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at http://fibrerollout.ie/eircode-lookup/.  A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department’s website www.dccae.gov.ie.  In the period to Q3 2017, over 14,100 premises in County Donegal were passed by eir's rural deployment.  

Quarterly updates on eir's rural deployment are published on this website. Although deployment figures for Q4 2017 have not yet been verified by my Department’s teams, I understand eir has passed a national total of 121,000 premises of the 300,000 eircodes identified by eir. 

My Department is in a formal procurement process to engage the company who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network to those premises in the State intervention area who will not be covered by private investment. My Department’s specialist NBP procurement team will continue to engage intensively with all the relevant stakeholders in the process, including the sse/enet consortium, to ensure the earliest possible achievement of the Government’s objective of providing reliable high quality, high speed broadband to every home, farm and business across the country. My Department will also engage with the bidder to ensure the most efficient deployment as part of any contract. 

When the procurement process reaches a satisfactory conclusion for Government, a contract will be awarded and the network rollout will commence. Through the said combination of commercial investment and State led intervention the National Broadband Plan has already provided a high speed broadband connection to thousands of homes around the country, ensuring that today, 7 out of 10 Irish premises can access this vital service. By the end of this year this will be almost 8 out of 10 and by 2020, 9 out of every 10 premises in this country will have a high speed broadband connection.