Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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410. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when the roll-out of the national broadband plan will be completed; the timeline within which households and businesses, specifically in north County Kildare, can expect to receive a broadband upgrade, in view of the existing quality of service and the fact that current connection speeds are not fit for purpose; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38631/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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In April 2017 I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available on my Department's website 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 National Broadband Plan.

There are approximately 91,000 premises in Kildare. Approximately 13,500 fall within the AMBER area and will be served under the State led Intervention. Some 76,500 premises are in a BLUE area and are or will be served by commercial providers. Just over 1,000 premises are in the Light BLUE area and remain to be covered under eir’s 300,000 planned rural deployment.

I can confirm that data for Q2 2018 submitted by eir to my Department indicates that the company has passed some 175,000 premises nationwide as part of its ongoing deployment including over 8,000 premises in Co. Kildare.

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, and is now evaluating the Final Tender submission received from the bidding consortium on 18 September 2018. This is a significant milestone as the NBP procurement process enters its final stage.

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

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