Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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229. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will review and respond to matters raised in correspondence by a person (details supplied) regarding the provision of broadband; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18634/21]

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 ensuring no premises is left behind. The NBP contract was awarded following a detailed and comprehensive procurement process. In line with State Aid Guidelines, the procurement process was technology neutral meaning that the process did not specify a preferred technology. However, all bidders in the process proposed fibre as the best solution. National and international expertise points to a fibre based solution as being the most economical way to address all premises with a future proofed solution over the 25 year term of the NBP Contract.  

In terms of whether the low earth orbit satellite technology employed by Starlink could be used in the more remote or latterly scheduled regions of the National Broadband Plan intervention area, the NBP Contract allows National Broadband Ireland (NBI) to explore alternative technologies, including satellite technology, if they are deemed necessary to assist delivery of the contract requirements. However, in doing so NBI must ensure that any alternative technologies utilised do not negatively impact on having a reliable and robust network available for all premises within the Intervention Area and that minimum contracted speeds are achieved. These considerations are a matter for NBI in the first instance.

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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230. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will report on progress to accelerate the delivery of the National Broadband Plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18665/21]

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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269. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the roll-out of fibre broadband will be accelerated; if so, the plan for the acceleration; and the new predicted completion date. [19736/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 230 and 269 together.

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 over 544,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools. In line with the NBP Contract, the deployment plan is a 7 year build programme which is due to be completed by the end of 2026. This remains unchanged.

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. The Programme for Government 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 roll out to establish the possibility of bringing forward premises which are currently scheduled in years 6 and 7 of the plan to an earlier date. I have recently written to NBI seeking to put the acceleration of the programme on a contractual footing. This will require detailed technical, commercial and financial analysis and these considerations are underway.

NBI has established a dedicated team to investigate acceleration of the roll out from its current contracted schedule of seven years.  As part of that work NBI is engaging with current build partners (eir and enet) to bring forward build activities and is also actively reviewing other possible build partners where such options could also speed up the build process. Exploring the potential to accelerate the network roll out is being undertaken in parallel with the measures required to mitigate delays arising as a result of Covid-19.

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. In this regard, an acceleration of this aspect of the National Broadband Plan was announced in December 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 .