Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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26. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he is satisfied with the pace of the roll-out of the national broadband plan; the measures that are being taken to address the delays in progressing from design stage to roll-out of fibre broadband in an area (details supplied), given that surveys were carried out in 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55393/22]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, 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.

Surveys are needed to establish the condition of existing poles and ducts, to ascertain whether repairs are needed. NBI’s contractors walk the fibre route to inspect infrastructure and gather detailed information on local conditions and this work is on-going. Further steps are then required prior to fibre build and connections including:

-Survey results fed back to NBI’s design teams who then develop detailed designs for each of the 227 Deployment Areas for submission to the Department for “Approval to Proceed” with fibre build;

-Repair/activities (“Make Ready”) carried out to ensure existing infrastructure is sufficiently prepared to pass the premises with fibre;

-Installation of and connection to electronic equipment in each Local Exchange building;

-Laying of the physical fibre along the poles and ducts;

-Fibre build quality checks, network testing and handover within NBI;

-Upload of specific fibre build details by premises to computer systems within NBI, enabling retail service providers to make connection orders visible on their respective systems which in turn allows premises’ owners to place orders;

-Customers can then place an order and request a connection to be scheduled with the retail service provider of choice.

The final numbers of Premises Passed or Connected does not fully reflect the scale of activity or work completed in terms of delivery of this project.

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, with between 180,000 to 185,000 premises passed by the end of 2023.

NBI are implementing a number of measures to help lessen the impact that delays have had on the rollout. Such measures include:

- Increasing the rate of pole replacement and duct remediation per month

- Bringing in additional NBI resources

- Earlier procurement of materials used in the build stages

- Bringing in additional subcontractors.

NBI advise that Templemartin Deployment Area's network build is in progress with anticipated connection dates between January and June 2024. Further information is available at www.nbi.ie. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.