Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed 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. Today, almost 7 out of 10 of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland have access to high speed broadband.  By 2020, 9 out of 10 premises will have access to a high speed broadband connection. This is being achieved via a combination of commercial investment and a State led intervention.

The High Speed Broadband Map, available at www.broadband.gov.ie shows the extent of the State Intervention area.  The map is colour coded and searchable by address/eircode: 

- The AMBER areas represent the target areas for the 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 as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with me in April 2017.

Premises in County Wicklow fall within areas to be served either commercially or through a State led intervention and are colour coded accordingly.  There are c64,000 premises in Co Wicklow of which some 14,000 fall within the State led intervention under the NBP and are the focus of the procurement process which is now in its final stages. The remaining premises, circa 50,000, are or will be served by commercial operators and include approximately 3,000 premises which are part of eir’s 300,000 planned rural deployment.  According to Q1 2018 figures provided to my Department by eir, over 3,000 premises in Co Wicklow have already been provided with access to a high speed service under this deployment, with a further 3,000 premises yet to be passed.

A breakdown of the number of premises which fall into each of these categories on a townland by townland basis will be forwarded directly to the Deputy.

For those premises awaiting access to high speed broadband, 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. The Department of Rural and Community Development maintain a list of Broadband Officers, a link to which is available on my Department's website at