Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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24. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the European Commission definition of highspeed broadband; and the impact that this definition has on determining the intervention area for the National Broadband Plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50535/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The 2020 Digital Europe Agenda (DEA) defines high-speed broadband as speeds above 30 Mbps. The purpose of the NBP is to promote the deployment of a Next Generation Access network (‘NGA’) comprising access segments and where necessary related backhaul segments in areas of the country where there is no broadband network in place capable of delivering reliably download speeds of at least 30 Mbps and where there are no plans for such coverage in the next seven years (i.e. ‘white’ NGA areas).

As a State intervention, the NBP must comply with the requirements of the European Commission’s State Aid Guidelines (SAG) on the application of the State aid rules to broadband networks.  The SAG requires, amongst other things, that Member States carry out a detailed mapping exercise and public consultation process to identify, as far as reasonably possible, those areas where intervention is required.

Since 2013, the Department has engaged in an extensive Mapping Process to map broadband availability across Ireland, in order to identify which geographic areas already have or will have access to Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband services, i.e. a broadband service delivering at least 30Mbps download speeds and which areas required intervention from the State.  Extensive information has been published at every stage of the overall NBP process, including each iteration of the NBP Map and information on the Mapping Process and the development of the NBP Map itself. This information can be found at www.broadband.gov.ie.

The mapping process included a number of public consultations conducted over a six year period from 2013 to 2019.  The most recent public consultation was in November 2019, which aimed to finalise the NBP Map in advance of signing the NBP contract. This public consultation confirmed the existing and planned coverage of broadband services across Ireland. It relied on the most up to date information available, shared by commercial operators, of their existing and planned broadband services. The Department undertook an analysis of this information and determined where broadband services existed and where it was planned.

The European Commission approved the National Broadband Plan in the context of EU State Aid rules.  The Commission issued the decision on 15 November 2019. The Commission has published a non-confidential version of its detailed decision on the EU Commission website.

The NBP contract, which was signed on 19 November 2019, provides that a future proofed high-speed broadband network will be deployed by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) to people living and working in the intervention area. It is expected that over 600,000 premises will be connected including new builds.  The NBP network will offer those premises in the Intervention Area a high-speed fibre broadband service with a minimum download speed of 500Mbps from the outset. 

The EU Commission is currently in the process of updating the State Aid Guidelines for broadband, which could allow EU Member States to allocate public funding to locations where 100Mbps is not yet available. The revised guidelines will aid EU Member States in meeting the EU’s ambition of enabling Gigabit networks to all premises by 2030.