Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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247. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11093/19]

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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248. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the national broadband plan tender progress; when all homes and businesses in County Kildare will have access to high speed broadband; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11094/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 247 and 248 together.

The National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every home, school and business in Ireland has access to high speed broadband. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment across the country, and a State intervention in those areas where commercial operators acting alone are unlikely to invest.

Since December 2015, the number of premises with access to high-speed broadband in Kildare has increased by 9,578, a 7% increase. In total, the number of premises in Kildare with access to high speech broadband is 77,589, 84% of the total premises in the County. Another 761 will be served by eir under that company’s ongoing rural deployment.

The remaining 13,885 homes, schools and businesses in Kildare will be connected under the government’s National Broadband Plan.

In April 2017 my Department 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 National Broadband Plan. The Map is colour coded and searchable by address or Eircode.

The procurement process to appoint a bidder for the State intervention network is now at the final stage. I will bring a recommendation to Government in relation to the NBP in the coming weeks.

Under a Commitment Agreement signed with my Department in April 2017, eir is in the process of passing 300,000 predominantly rural homes with high speed broadband. According to data for Q4 2018 submitted by eir to my Department the company has passed more than 225,000 premises nationwide as part of its ongoing deployment. This information will be available on my Department's website shortly.

Information on eir's rural deployment is available on that company’s website, . A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department’s website, www.dccae.gov.ie.

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. 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.