Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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82. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will provide an update on the roll-out of high-speed broadband under the national broadband plan, in the constituency of Longford-Westmeath. [62473/22]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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There are 22,793 premises in County Longford and 45,599 in County Westmeath of which 8,957 in Longford and 11,983 in Westmeath are within the National Broadband Plan Intervention Area and will receive access to high speed broadband under the NBP. Government investment in County Longford through the NBP will be in the order of €34 million and for Westmeath €46 million.

NBI has advised that over 3,500 premises are available to Order/Pre Order a service in County Westmeath with 672 available in County Longford. Further details are available on specific areas within Counties Longford and Westmeath 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.

Strategic Connection Points (SCPs) 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 2 December 2022, 823 SCP sites (280 Broadband Connection Points, which are publicly accessible sites, and 543 schools) have been installed 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 BCPs and the Department of Education for schools.

In County Longford 8 BCPs have been installed to date with 7 in County Westmeath respectively. Further details can be found at nbi.ie/bcp-locations/.

My Department continues to work with the Department of Education to prioritise schools with no high-speed broadband, within the Intervention Area. Further details are available on the NBI website at nbi.ie/primary-schools-list/. In County Longford 10 schools have been installed to date for educational access, with 12 installed in County Westmeath.