Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1248. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to extend high-speed fibre broadband to a household (details supplied) in County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19239/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The premises referred to by the Deputy is in the AMBER area on the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map, which is available on my Department's website at .

The AMBER areas represent the target areas for the proposed State led Intervention under the NBP.

This intervention is the subject of the procurement process to engage a company to build, operate and maintain the NBP State intervention network. Following rigorous evaluation by my Department, I recently brought a recommendation to Government to confer Preferred Bidder status on Granahan McCourt, the remaining bidder in the NBP procurement process and Government has agreed to this.

The Government Decision means that it is intended to award the State Intervention contract to Granahan McCourt, subject to contract close, including finalisation of financial and legal documents. Deployment of the NBP State Intervention network will commence shortly after contract signature.

In the first year of this roll out, the Bidder will deploy approximately 300 Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) across all counties. It is anticipated that between 7 and 23 BCPs will be deployed in each county. BCPs will provide a community based high speed broadband service, enhancing online participation and allowing for the establishment of digital work hubs in these locations. A deployment plan will be made available by the bidder once the contract is signed. The Bidder is aiming to pass 133,000 premises by end of the second year of the overall deployment, with 70-100,000 passed each year thereafter until roll out is completed.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1249. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to extend high-speed fibre broadband to a household (details supplied) in County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19240/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The premises referred to by the Deputy is in the BLUE area on the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map, which is available on my Department's website at www.broadband.gov.ie.The BLUE areas are where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.

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.

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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1250. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to the gap in fibre broadband coverage at a location (details supplied); and the steps he is taking to address this and other similar anomalies in the roll-out of broadband infrastructure. [19273/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The estate referred to by the Deputy is in the BLUE area on the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map, which is available on my Department's website at . The BLUE areas are where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.

The installation of telecommunications infrastructure and delivery of services via same is undertaken by private companies operating on a commercial basis in a liberalised market. I have no statutory authority to direct commercial operators in this regard, and cannot intervene in such day to day operations.

That notwithstanding my Department monitors the deployment of broadband infrastructure by commercial operators across the country and will continue to do so. Should commercial operators’ plans for premises in BLUE areas not materialise it may become necessary for my Department to intervene.

The NBP High Speed Broadband Map is dynamic. This means that either during the procurement, or following award of an NBP contract, the intervention area can be updated to reflect new commercial plans, or previous plans that have failed to materialise. This flexibility allows for an increase or decrease in the number of premises included in the State Intervention area.

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 Task Force to address obstacles and improve connectivity in respect of existing and future mobile phone and broadband services.

Under this task force, 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.