Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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179. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the details of the exchanges enabled in County Clare under the National Broadband Plan to date; the details of scheduled and planned enabling of broadband exchanges in County Clare under the National Broadband Plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2415/22]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, 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 554,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along some 679 schools. Despite the unprecedented challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, National Broadband Ireland has made steady progress on delivery of the new high speed fibre broadband network under the National Broadband Plan with over 290,000 premises surveyed or with survey underway across all counties and 154,000 premises constructed or under construction. NBI has also advised that 54,000 premises are available to order and pre-order across 21 counties as of 7 January 2022.

NBI’s fibre network architecture is centred around existing Openeir exchanges and the State owned Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs). This strategy is based on engineering design principles that allows every premises to be passed as quickly and as efficiently as possible. The fibre network is divided up into 227 Deployment Areas (DA). Each Deployment Area is centred around existing Regional or Local Exchanges. NBI commenced the rollout in the 33 Deployment Areas across Ireland (at least 1 per county where possible) that have regional exchanges as these exchanges already have an established connection back to existing data centres. Regional exchanges are mostly located near urban areas. Once NBI install their equipment in the regional exchange and from there to the data centres, they can then install their equipment in the neighbouring local exchanges and connect them back to the regional exchange.

In terms of County Clare, the regional exchanges are located in the Limerick and Gort Deployment Areas with local exchanges in Kilkishen, Feakle, Ogonnelloe, Corfin, Tiermaclane, Labasheeda, Kilrush, Milltown Malbay, Lisdoonvarna and Behagh. In line with the rollout of the regional exchanges, NBI started works in the Limerick Deployment Area and Gort Deployment Area and these exchanges are enabled supporting the first Premises to be passed in County Clare. Work is ongoing on the Kilkishen Deployment Area and the local exchange is due to be enabled in H2 2022. To date, NBI has surveyed more than 7,900 premises and over 1,500 premises can either order or pre-order today.

Further details are available on specific areas within County Clare 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. NBI 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 7 January, 449 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 publicly accessible sites and the Department of Education for school BCPs. BCP’s are installed in County Clare at Loop Head Lighthouse, Caherconnell Stone Fort, Obair Family Centre, Loughraney Kids Playschool, Michael Cusack Visitor Centre and Cree Community Centre. Further details can be found at nbi.ie/bcp-locations/.

Kilmurry McMahon National School, Shragh National School, Ennistymon National School, Saint John The Baptist National School, Furraglaun Primary School, Moneen National School, Clooney National School and Stonehall National School have been installed by NBI for educational access.  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 2020 with an ambition to connect some 679 schools to high speed broadband by the end of 2022, well ahead of the original target delivery timeframes across the NBP fibre program. Further details of schools in scope are available on the NBI website at nbi.ie/primary-schools-list.