Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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462. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the provision of broadband services in Ballymore, County Westmeath; if work is still scheduled to take place in autumn 2018; and if a more detailed timeline will be provided. [27695/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Deputy may recall that I have in previous replies dated 17and 24 April 2018 respectively detailed the position in relation to the rollout of broadband in the townland of Ballymore, Co Westmeath. I am happy to provide a further update.

My Department's High Speed Broadband Map (www.broadband.gov.ie) shows that 99% (134 premises) of the townland of Ballymore, Co Westmeath are due to receive access to a high speed broadband connection via eir’s ongoing rural fibre deployment.

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 this rollout by the end of this year. Information on eir's ongoing rural deployment is available at . A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department’s website www.dccae.gov.ie.

Quarterly updates on eir's rural deployment are published on this website. eir has passed a total of 145,000 of the committed premises as of Q1 2018. This figure includes 3,600 premises in Westmeath passed to date. The Deputy will recall that in my previous reply I indicated that 4,000 premises in Westmeath remained to be passed. As of Q1 2018 this number has reduced to approximately 3,100 and therefore the incremental progress of eir's rollout can be seen.

My Department meets with eir on a monthly basis to review the company’s performance on its on-going rural deployment project in line with its obligations under a Commitment Agreement signed with me in April 2017. The Commitment Agreement provides that action will be taken by eir, within a window of six months of missing a quarterly target for an area. In line with this requirement, eir has signalled that there would likely be knock on effects to their 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.

The remaining 2 premises in the townland of Ballymore will receive access to high speed broadband via the State led intervention. 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. There is a link to a list of these local Broadband Officers on my Department's website at https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/communications/topics/Broadband/national-broadband-plan/latest-news/Pages/Broadband-Officers-Workshop.aspx.