Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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19. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of his Department's interaction with commercial providers in relation to their roll-out of broadband provision in County Kildare; the extent of their plans for the area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23963/18]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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44. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23970/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 44 together.

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. Today, 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.

In April 2017 I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at . This Map shows the areas targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

The Map 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 as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with me in April 2017.

There are over 90,700 premises in Kildare. Some 13,400 (15%) fall within the AMBER area and will be served under the State led Intervention. Nearly 74,000 (82%) of premises are in a BLUE area and are, or will be, served by commercial providers, while approximately 3,300 (3%) are LIGHT BLUE and fall to be served by eir's planned rural deployment.  A county by county breakdown of eir’s data for Q1 2018 is available on my Department’s website.

Information on categories of premises can be accessed on my Department’s website by entering the relevant eircode into the High Speed Broadband Map.

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 in its final stages.

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 on its ongoing rural deployment, including Kildare. The purpose of these review meetings is for eir to report progress and also to identify any risks or issues and their associated risk mitigation plans.

Data for Q1 2018 recently submitted by eir to my Department indicates that the company has passed some 145,000 premises nationwide as part of its ongoing deployment. eir has signalled that there would be likely knock-on effects to the 2018 milestone targets due to the severe weather impacts of both storms Ophelia and Emma. I have met with the senior management in eir and expressed to them the importance of implementing measures to catch up with milestone targets as a priority

For those premises currently 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 .

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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20. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in isolated rural areas. [19080/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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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. Today, 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. In April 2017 I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at . This Map shows the areas targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the NBP.

The Map is colour coded and is 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 as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with me in April 2017.

The Commitment Agreement signed with eir relates to its plans to provide high speed broadband to 300,000 premises in rural areas on a commercial basis. eir remains committed to completing this rollout. Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at . A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department’s website .

Data for Q1 2018 recently submitted by eir to my Department indicates that the company has passed some 145,000 premises nationwide as part of its ongoing deployment. eir has signalled that there would be some knock-on effects to the 2018 milestone targets due to the severe weather impacts of both storms Ophelia and Emma. I have met with the senior management in eir and expressed to them the importance of implementing measures to catch up with milestone targets as a priority.

There are more than 40,000 premises in County Sligo of which some 14,300  are located in the AMBER area and are part of  the State led Intervention under the NBP. Some remaining 25,800 premises are located in the BLUE/Light BLUE areas  on the map and will be served by commercial operators and includes nearly 3,800 premises that fall within eir’s plans to deliver rural high speed broadband.

There are more than 22,300  premises In Co Leitrim, of which almost 11,300 premises are located in the AMBER area and are part of the State led Intervention under the NBP. Some remaining 11,000 premises are located in the  BLUE/Light BLUE areas and will be served by commercial operators. This figure includes nearly 2,500 premises that fall within eir’s plans to deliver rural high speed broadband.

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 in its final stages.

For those premises currently 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 .

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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21. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the implementation status of the national broadband plan; and the date by which the contract for the State intervention area will be awarded. [23959/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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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. 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. In April 2017 I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at . This Map shows the areas targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the NBP.

The Map 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 as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with me in April 2017.

There are over 68,400 premises in County Clare, circa 45,200 of which fall within a BLUE area of the Map and will be covered by commercial operators.  Of these 45,200, over 8,700 form part of eir's planned rural deployment to deliver rural high speed broadband.  The remaining 23,200 premises in County Clare fall within the AMBER area and will be part of the State led Intervention under the 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. That procurement process is now in its final stages.