Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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108. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the degree to which high-speed broadband is being made available to various industrial parks throughout the country in order to facilitate the increasing number of persons who may require the option of working from home or at a location close to their homes that can provide the modern facilities required and an element of office environment without long distance commuting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1889/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The National Broadband Plan (NBP) State led Intervention will be delivered by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) under a contract 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 over 544,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools.Noting that the fibre roll-out is a long-term project, Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) were seen as a key early element of the NBP that could provide access to high speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll out of the fibre to the home network.  As of 21 December, 241 publicly accessible 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. Services will vary at each BCP location – some sites will have desks and other equipment which can be used for remote working while others will have outside access only. Information is on a site by site basis and can be found via the map. 

Any works that are required in the relevant buildings to cater for remote working will be carried out by the owners of the BCP with assistance, both financial and otherwise, from the Local Authority and local LEADER office.

An interdepartmental working group, chaired by the Department of Rural and Community Development is currently progressing work on hub infrastructure and development of remote working hubs. In that regard BCPs are only a subset of a much larger hub infrastructure. This Working Group will be looking towards enhancing a national hub infrastructure that provides a fair level of geographical access and a level of service that is appropriate given ongoing developments to future working arrangements.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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109. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the degree to which the national broadband plan continues at pace including the linking up of the various areas throughout the country in which the greatest efficiency occurs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1890/21]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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112. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the degree to which high-speed, high-quality broadband is available throughout the country as a percentage of the total requirement; the progress towards dealing with the areas most poorly served at present; his anticipated targets by year end; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1893/21]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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114. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the extent to which he expects to meet the targets set for the provision of a satisfactory broadband service in all areas throughout the country; the measures being taken to address locations of particular deficiency in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1895/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 109, 112 and 114 together.

As of December over 153,000 premises across all counties have been surveyed by National Broadband Ireland (NBI)  which is ahead of the full year survey target of 120,000 that had been projected by the company.

Nationally, NBI has construction underway on the first 19,237 premises, covering townlands in Carrigaline, Cavan, Galway, Limerick and Ballinasloe. The first connections to the NBI network have already been made as part of a test and trial phase in Carrigaline, which in some cases include successful integration with a Retail Service Provider (RSP), with additional trial premises planned to be connected in January. NBI is targeting construction to have commenced in all 26 counties at the end of 2021, with construction actively underway in 41 Deployment Areas, covering approximately 130,000 premises.

As a wholesale provider, NBI will work with RSPs to provide connections directly to customers and a list of all providers will be available on NBI’s website – nbi.ie/where-can-i-buy – once a connection can be ordered. In the meantime, NBI encourages people to register their interest via the website, so they can be notified with the latest information.

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. As of December, some 241 BCP sites have been installed by NBI and will be connected with high speed publicly accessible broadband through a service provider contract managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development. School BCPs will be provided with high speed broadband for educational use and some 70 schools will be connected by the end of January through ‘service provider' contracts managed by the Department of Education.

The Programme for Government has committed to seek to accelerate the roll out of the National Broadband Plan. In this regard, my Department continues to engage with NBI to explore the feasibility of accelerating aspects of this rollout to establish the possibility of bringing forward premises which are currently scheduled in years 6 and 7 of the current plan to an earlier date. NBI has established a dedicated team to investigate acceleration of the rollout from its current contracted schedule of seven years. Substantial work has been completed by this team to date with further actions scheduled over the coming months. This includes an assessment of the potential to utilise the ESB Network for certain areas and this work is on-going. The technical feasibility of whether the ESB network is compatible with the NBI solution has been the primary focus and NBI have undertaken site surveys and developed a detailed design for a pilot area using the ESB network, with the aim of establishing from this pilot exercise, the feasibility of using the ESB infrastructure on a broader basis.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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110. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the degree to which the national broadband plan continues at pace including the linking up of the urban and rural areas throughout County Kildare in which the greatest efficiency occurs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1891/21]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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113. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the degree to which high-speed, high-quality broadband is available throughout County Kildare as a percentage of the total requirement; the progress towards dealing with the areas most poorly served at present; his anticipated targets by year end; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1894/21]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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115. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the extent to which he expects to meet the targets set for the provision of a satisfactory broadband service in all areas throughout County Kildare; the measures being taken to address locations of particular deficiency in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1896/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 110, 113 and 115 together.

As of 21 December 2020, over 153,000 premises across all counties have been surveyed by National Broadband Ireland (NBI)  which is ahead of the full year survey target of 120,000 that had been projected by the company.

There are 13,859 premises in Kildare that are within the intervention area for the National Broadband Plan. As of December some 2,818 (20%) have been surveyed in the following areas; Killashee, Oughterard, Naas Rural, Rathmore, Kill, Kilteel, Carnalway, Gilltown, Ballymore Eustace, Bodenstown, Naas Urban, Newtown and Donaghcumper. Surveys will be commencing in the areas of Athy, Coneyboro, Aughaboura, Ballinapark, Castlemitchell, Bert, Kilberry and Kilkea. Further details are available on specific areas across the country including Kildare through the NBI website which provides a facility for any premises within the intervention area to register their interest in being provided with deployment updates through its website www.nbi.ie. Individuals who register with this facility will receive regular updates on progress by NBI on delivering the network and specific updates related to their own premises when works are due to commence.

I am aware that concerns have been raised regarding the level of information available on the deployment of the NBI network and I am advised that NBI is working to provide more detail on its website, with a rolling update on network build plans.

Nationally, NBI has construction underway to provide access to the new fibre network to the first 19,237 premises covering townlands in Carrigaline, Cavan, Galway, Limerick and Ballinasloe.  NBI is targeting construction of the fibre network to commence in all 26 counties by the end of 2021.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. As of 21 December, some 241 BCP sites have been installed by NBI and will be connected with high speed publicly accessible broadband through a service provider contract managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development. Lullymore Heritage Park and Bigstone Community Hall have now had NBI equipment installed with more locations planned over the coming months. Further details can be found at .

Rathmore National School has also had NBI equipment installed for educational access as part of this initiative. My Department continues to work with the Department of Education to prioritise other schools with no high speed broadband, within the intervention area for connection over the term of the NBP. In this regard, an acceleration of this aspect of the National Broadband Plan has just  been announced which will see some 679 primary schools connected to high speed broadband by 2022, well ahead of the original target delivery timeframe of 2026. Further details are available on the NBI website at

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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111. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the extent to which the national broadband plan continues to address the issues of the lack of high-speed broadband in areas in County Kildare in both urban and rural settings, having particular regard to the need to facilitate persons working from home or from industrial parks close to home given the challenges of the need to reduce long commutes and meet the challenges of Covid-19; the extent to which the linking up of the areas previously experiencing poor service with those areas now in receipt of optimum services in terms of quality and availability is occurring; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1892/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The National Broadband Plan (NBP) State led Intervention will be delivered by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) under a contract 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 over 544,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools.

Noting that the fibre roll-out is a long-term project, Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) were seen as a key early element of the NBP that could provide access to high speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll out of the fibre to the home network. As of 21 December, 241 publicly accessible 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 Kildare, Bigstone Community Hall has been connected by the retail service provider with Lullymore Heritage Park being connected shortly. The locations of Crookstown Further Education and Training and the Community Centre in Back Gate Lodge Kilkea Demesne Castledermot will be connected by the end of Q1.

Services will vary at each BCP location – some sites will have desks and other equipment which can be used for remote working while others will have outside access only. Information is on a site by site basis and can be found via the map.

Any works that are required in the relevant buildings to cater for remote working will be carried out by the owners of the BCP with assistance, both financial and otherwise, from the Local Authority and local LEADER office.

An interdepartmental working group, chaired by the Department of Rural and Community Development is currently progressing work on hub infrastructure and development of remote working hubs. In that regard BCPs are only a subset of a much larger hub infrastructure. This Working Group will be looking towards enhancing a national hub infrastructure that provides a fair level of geographical access and a level of service that is appropriate given ongoing developments to future working arrangements.

The Department has met with Broadband Officers in local authorities in relation to premises in the BLUE area where performance issues were raised. The Department is continuing to monitor the BLUE areas and has encouraged the Broadband Officers to contact the Broadband inbox (broadband@decc.gov.ie) with specific examples of premises or known areas that have been identified where performance issues exist.