James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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431. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the position regarding the roll-out of fibre broadband in County Wexford under the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28912/18]

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, this will increase to 9 out of 10 premises. This is being achieved via a combination of commercial investment and a State led intervention.

The Intervention Area for the State led intervention, coloured AMBER on my Department's High Speed Broadband Map () shows those premises that will not receive this service without Government intervention.  Information on specific categories of premises can be accessed by entering the relevant eircode into the Map.

There are just over 82,000 premises in County Wexford.  Some 21,500 (26%) fall within the AMBER area and will be covered under the State led Intervention. Approximately 52,500 (64%) of premises are in a BLUE area and are, or will be covered by commercial providers, while approximately 8,000 (10%) are LIGHT BLUE and fall to be covered by eir's planned rural deployment, which has already deployed to around 14,400 premises in the county. Individuals can check which category their premises falls into by going to my Department’s website and entering their Eircode into the High Speed Broadband Map.

A full set of county statistics are available at .

Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at .

My Department is in the final stages of a formal procurement process to select a company who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area.

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 at