Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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781. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the installation of broadband at a location details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31015/18]

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, available at www.broadband.gov.ie, which shows those areas that will be served by commercial operators and those that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the NBP.  This includes approximately 300,000 premises to be passed as part of eir's rural deployment of high speed broadband as part of a Commitment Agreement signed in April 2017.

The premises referred to by the Deputy is in an AMBER area on my Department’s High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. It is therefore included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

My Department is in a formal procurement process to select a company who will rollout a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. That procurement process is now in its final stages.

The rollout of broadband infrastructure close to this premises is a commercial undertaking by eir.  Decisions made by private telecommunication operators relating to the rollout and siting of high speed broadband infrastructure are made on a commercial basis by competing service providers operating in a liberalised market. I have no statutory role or function to intervene in the commercial decisions of private operators, and therefore cannot direct operators regarding infrastructure installation or delivery of services.

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 this https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/communications/topics/Broadband/national-broadband-plan/Pages/NBP-Information-Leaflets.aspx..