Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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154. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when fibre broadband will be available to a household (details supplied) in County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58290/21]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The premises referred to in the Question is located in the BLUE area on the NBP High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie.

BLUE areas are not included in the State intervention area covered by the National Broadband Plan as commercial operators are already providing high speed broadband or have indicated future plans to do so. My Department defines high speed broadband as a connection with minimum speeds of 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload. The activities of commercial operators delivering high speed broadband within BLUE areas are not planned or funded by the State and my Department has no statutory authority to intervene in that regard.

Complaints about service provision are a matter to be dealt with between the consumer and the service provider in the first instance. If this avenue has been exhausted without a satisfactory resolution, the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) may be able to assist further. ComReg is the independent body that issues licences to broadband service providers and investigates complaints to make sure that companies are delivering services in line with their licence obligations.

Notwithstanding this, my Department has undertaken an initial investigation into the matter and established that the premises is a new build and that neighbouring properties can access high speed broadband. My Department has raised a query with the network operator who has confirmed that the issue is system related and the network operator will review and hopefully rectify the matter to allow the order for the high speed broadband service to be placed with the resident’s service provider.