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 www.broadband.gov.ie. 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 approximately 42,000 premises in Cavan. Some 17,000 (40%) fall within the AMBER area and will be served under the State led Intervention. Approximately 20,000 (49%) of premises are in a BLUE area and are or will be served by commercial providers, while some 5,000 (11%) are LIGHT BLUE and fall to be served by eir's planned rural deployment.

Of the approximately 33,000 premises in Monaghan, some 15,500 (48%) are AMBER, approximately 15,500 (47%) are BLUE and some 1,700 (5%) are LIGHT BLUE.

Information on the categories of specific premises can be accessed on my Department’s website www.broadband.gov.ie by entering the relevant eircode.

Information on eir's rural deployment is available at . A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department’s website www.dccae.gov.ie.  Eir continue to pass premises as part of this deployment.

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.

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