Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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88. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans in relation to enhancing connectivity in view of the large number of the workforce now working from home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24997/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As set out in the Programme for Government, ensuring access to high-quality internet connections for people across Ireland is essential to the development of all parts of our country, socially and economically. Facilitating remote working and innovation opportunities is essential for addressing climate change, adapting in an evolving economy, and competing internationally.

A key principle of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) is to support and stimulate commercial investment in telecommunications infrastructure. Since the publication of the NBP strategy in 2012, the commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2.75 billion. This was primarily on upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high speed broadband and mobile telecommunications services. Significant additional investment is expected over the coming years. Today over 1.78m or 75% of premises in Ireland can access commercially available high speed broadband services. These networks have extended and enhanced connectivity throughout Ireland.

So as to ensure that nobody is left behind in a digital divide, the National Broadband Plan (NBP) State led Intervention will be delivered by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) under a contract signed last November to roll out a high speed and future proofed broadband network within the Intervention Area which covers 1.1 million people living and working in the nearly 540,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools.

The NBP network will offer users a high speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 500Mbps from the outset. This represents an increase from the 150Mbps committed to under the Contract. The deployment plan forecasts premises passed in all counties within the first 2 years and over 90% of premises in the State having access to high speed broadband within the next four years.

Design work is complete or ongoing in target townlands across 21 counties and steady progress is being made with over 91,000 premises surveyed as at 15 September. This survey work is feeding into detailed designs for each deployment area and laying fibre should commence shortly with the first fibre to the home connections expected around December this year. NBI provides a facility for any premises within the Intervention Area to register their interest in being provided with deployment updates through its website (). 

Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) are a key element of the NBP providing high speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll out of the fibre to the home network. Some 144 BCP sites have been installed by NBI and the high speed broadband service will be switched on in these locations through service provider contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development for publicly available sites and by the Department of Education and Skills for schools.

Bringing connectivity to remote rural locations is central to promoting regional development and BCPs represent an important delivery in the early stages of the National Broadband Plan.

In addition, on 15 April 2020 all major telecommunications providers committed to a number of measures to help people stay in touch and work from home during Covid 19. These commitments were further supported through regulations enabling ComReg to release additional rights of use for radio spectrum on a temporary basis. This provided flexibility for mobile network operators to create additional capacity for mobile phone and broadband services and accommodate the increased demand at this time.