Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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85. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans in respect of areas that are deemed to have broadband coverage that fall outside the remit of the national broadband plan but are subject to market failure. [14225/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In April 2017 my Department published an updated version of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map. This is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The 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 BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services. These premises are therefore not included in the NBP State intervention area (AMBER on the Map).

My Department monitors deployment of high speed broadband on an ongoing basis as part of the NBP and this monitoring continues in parallel with the NBP procurement process. The NBP High Speed Broadband Map can be updated during the procurement, or following award of an NBP contract, to reflect new commercial plans, or to update areas where previous plans have failed to materialise. In the event commercial operators’ plans for premises in BLUE areas do not materialise it may become necessary for my Department to intervene.

To assist with this monitoring, where a citizen living in a Blue area is unable to obtain a high speed broadband service, I would encourage them to email my Department at broadband@dccae.gov.ie with their Eircode and details of the service providers they have contacted and the issues encountered in respect of accessing high speed broadband.