Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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176. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he has been notified of force majeure circumstance by a company (details supplied) in relation to its NBP commitment agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9011/18]

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. eir has committed to completing the rollout by the end of this year. Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at. A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department’s websitewww.dccae.gov.ie.Storm Ophelia, which hit our shores on 16th October 2017, caused extensive damage to infrastructure across the country. I understand from eir that necessary resources were redirected to affected areas in order to restore service. I informed the House of this when responding to Questions on 14 November last.

In accordance with the obligations of the Commitment Agreement, officials from my Department meet with eir on a monthly basis to review the company’s performance on their ongoing rural deployment project.

Officials from my Department were informed by eir that its Q4 targets would be impacted by the effects of Storm Ophelia. In line with the force majeure terms of the Commitment Agreement and, with the Department's approval, eir’s Q4 2017 target for listed eircodes passed under their rural deployment was adjusted from approximately 30,000 to approximately 20,000.

According to figures now verified by my Department eir reached this revised target with an overall total of 121,000 listed eircodes passed as of December 2017. I further understand that eir, in the process of including extra premises in their rollout where the situation on the ground required or allowed for, have in fact covered a total of 131,000 premises passed as of December 2017.

As mentioned previously my Department is in regular contact with eir in relation to their ongoing deployment and the Commitment Agreement and will continue this engagement with the aim of ensuring the requirements of the Commitment Agreement are met.