Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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240. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when the tender process for the national broadband plan will be finalised; if his attention has been drawn to the ongoing concerns nationally about the inadequate broadband telecommunications service available at present (details supplied); the timescale for the delivery of high speed broadband infrastructure to each county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18302/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure high speed broadband access to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment and a State led intervention.

The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector. In 2012, less than 700,000, or 30% of all 2.4 million Irish premises had access to high speed broadband. Today, 74% of premises can access high speed broadband.

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 shortly. In the event a contract is awarded, my Department will engage with the bidder on the most appropriate deployment across each county which will enable premises in the intervention area to gain access to a high speed broadband service.

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 Local Authority 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.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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241. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the roll-out of broadband in south County Kildare; and the progress of the national broadband plan. [18303/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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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.

According to my Department’s High Speed Broadband Map, 30,856 or 79% of premises in the constituency of South Kildare now have access to high speed broadband. This represents an increase of 13 percentage points since April 2017, when eir began its deployment of high speed broadband to some 300,000 rural premises. This deployment will deliver access to a high speed broadband service to a further 1%, or 400 premises. The remaining 7,811, or 20%, of homes, schools and businesses in Kildare South will be connected under the Government’s National Broadband Plan State Intervention.

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 as soon as possible.

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 Local Authority 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.