Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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605. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of primary and secondary schools connected to broadband under the national broadband plan in each county; the number of schools in each county awaiting connection, in tabular form; when they will be connected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26518/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Through the 2012 Schools 100Mbps Project all 780+ post primary schools across Ireland were provided with access to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) high speed broadband. The aim of this project, which was achieved, was to ensure that all second level students can enhance their learning experience through digital.

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 have provided no concrete plans to invest.

My Department published an updated version of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The Map shows is searchable by address/Eircode:

- The AMBER area represents the parts of the country where commercial operators have no plans to build high speed broadband networks. Premises in the AMBER area will be provided with high speed broadband through the State Intervention.

- The BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.

- The LIGHT BLUE area represents eir's commercial rural deployment plans to rollout high speed broadband to 300,000 premises as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with my Department in April 2017.

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 agreed to this. The Government decision on 7 May 2019 means that it is intended to award the State Intervention contract to National Broadband Ireland, subject to contract close, including the finalisation of financial and legal documents. Deployment of the NBP State Intervention network will commence shortly after that.

The Bidder has indicated that the NBP State intervention will take an estimated 7 years from the beginning of deployment. 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 the end of the second year, with 70-100,000 passed each year thereafter until roll out is completed.

As regards Primary Schools, 674 schools located in the Amber area will be provided with high speed broadband through the State Intervention. 1,965 schools located in the Blue area are already or will be provided with high speed broadband through commercial operators and 503 schools located in the Light Blue area will be provided with high speed broadband through eir’s ongoing roll out which is nearing completion.

The table gives a breakdown by county of Primary schools.