Written answers

Wednesday, 28 April 2021

Department of Rural and Community Development

Broadband Infrastructure

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1175. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she has engaged with the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to provide funding for and or otherwise ensure access to fibre optic broadband and consistent phone signal for Gaeltacht communities and in particular the communities of Seanphobal and An Rinn in the interest of local development; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21360/21]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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It should be noted that responsibility for broadband and mobile phone services rests with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. While I do not have a specific role with regard to broadband or mobile network coverage, as Minister for Rural and Community Development I regularly discuss these matters with my Cabinet colleagues, including the Ministers at the Departments referred to.

The Government is fully committed to improving connectivity in rural and Gaeltacht areas, as is evidenced by the National Broadband Plan and a suite of measures to improve and make best use of connectivity contained in the new Rural Development Policy: Our Rural Future.

Through the Broadband Connection Points (BCP) initiative, my department is establishing a national network of approximately 300 community hubs in some of the most remote parts of the country, including areas in Waterford. These hubs will support remote working, skills and education training, eHealth services, and arts and culture and events, depending on the needs and desires of the host communities. More than 160 BCPs are already connected and operational.

Broadband Connection Points are among the first premises to be connected under the National Broadband Plan and represent a collaboration between my Department, the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, 28 of the 31 Local Authorities and the c.300 communities that will host these services.

Aside from the BCP project, my Department is leading on a number of initiatives to assist rural and isolated areas to access digital services. These include the WiFi4EU program and the National Hub Network, a key deliverable under the Programme for Government and the Remote Working Policy: Making Remote Work.

In furtherance of the latter, my Department has been allocated an additional €5m to support the development of the National Hub Network and BCPs. This Fund will support small capital projects that will add remote working capacity. I anticipate making an announcement in respect of the Fund's launch in the very near future.

I recently announced €75million for 24 landmark projects under the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund. Many of the successful projects involve the regeneration of historic town centre buildings as Enterprise and Co-Working Hubs. This funding will support connectivity by enabling historic or underused buildings to be utilised as hot-desking facilities, remote working hubs, e-learning or enterprise spaces.

Údarás na Gaeltachta is also involved in rolling out a network of innovation and digital hubs on 6 Gaeltacht Islands with high speed broadband connectivity - one of the policy measures outlined in Our Rural Future.

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