Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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24. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will provide an update on the rollout of the National Broadband Plan to include the number of premises passed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55001/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Survey and design work for the new high speed fibre broadband network under the National Broadband Plan is complete or ongoing by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) in every county in Ireland. I am advised by NBI that, as of 28 October 2022, over 97,000 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 25 counties, with over 87,700 premises passed across 25 counties and available for immediate connection. Construction is underway across 26 counties demonstrating that the project is reaching scale. To date, the level of connections is increasing on a daily basis and is in line with or exceeding projections.

My Department worked with NBI to agree an Updated Interim Remedial Plan (UIRP) which recalibrated the targets for 2022 to take account of the knock on effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and other delays to the programme. The revised target is 102,000 premises to be passed by the end of January 2023. In addition, the revised target for end January 2024 is between 180,000 to 185,000 premises passed.