Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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47. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if additional resources will be provided to expedite the roll-out of the national broadband plan given the poor connectivity employees are experiencing working from home in intervention areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3928/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Covid 19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of good reliable broadband to ensure that citizens across Ireland can avail of remote working, education and other essential online facilities. This is reflected in the commitments in the Programme for Government where delivery of the National Broadband Plan will be a key enabler to many of the policies envisaged particularly around increased levels of remote working. 

The Programme for Government also commits 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. All possible alternative network providers are being considered and 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 has 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

Exploring the potential to accelerate the network rollout is being undertaken in parallel with the measures required to mitigate delays arising as a result of Covid-19.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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48. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when high-speed broadband under the national broadband plan will be available at a property (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3937/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Question refers to a premises which is located in the AMBER area on the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map which is available on my Department's website www.broadband.gov.ie. The AMBER area represents the area to be served by the network to be deployed under the NBP State led intervention. 

I appreciate people's frustration when they are living so close to a fibre network but cannot get a connection to that network, particularly given the heightened importance of connectivity during the Covid-19 pandemic. The NBP will ensure that in all such cases a future proofed high speed broadband network will be built to serve these premises and work to deliver on this is underway. 

I am advised by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) that, as of 15 January 2021, over 161,000 premises across all counties have been surveyed. In County Kerry, surveys have been completed in townlands around Killarney including Muckross, Fossa, Kilcummin, Lissivigeen, Ballycasheen, Faha, Firies and Ballyhar and in townlands around Tralee such as Curraheen, Abbeydorney, Kilflynn, Firies, Castlemaine and Ardfert. Further details are available on specific areas within County Kerry 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 as works commence. I am advised that NBI is working to provide more detail on its website, with a rolling update on network build plans. NBI also has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.

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 10 January, 243 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.  BCP’s installed in Kerry are Gneeveguilla  (Tureencahill),  Railway Station Heritage Centre and Community Space, KilleenaghKillenagh, Kielduff Community Centre and  Cillín Liath.  BCPs at  Cable Sation and Chapeltown are installed and connected. Further details can be found at . 

Boheeshil National School, Dunloe Upper and Coars National School are installed by NBI as part of this initiative.  School BCPs will be provided with high speed broadband for educational use and more than 70 schools will have been connected by the end of January through ‘service provider' contracts managed by the Department of Education. An acceleration of the Schools Broadband Connection Points as part of the overall NBP was announced late last year which will see some 679 primary schools connected to high speed broadband by 2022, well ahead of the original target delivery timeframe of 2026. My Department continues to work with the Department of Education to prioritise schools with no high speed broadband, within the intervention area for connection over the term of the NBP. Further details are available on the NBI website at .