Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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98. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the roll-out of broadband in counties Cavan and Monaghan and north County Meath. [62559/22]

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 over 560,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with some 679 schools.

I am advised by NBI that, as of 02 December, over 112,200 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 25 counties, with over 101,700 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.

Over 3,603 premises in County Cavan, 4,415 in County Monaghan have been passed by high-speed fibre broadband and are available for immediate connection. Almost 2,000 premises in County Meath are scheduled to be able to order a connection by the end of January 2023 and the first of these premises are now available for connection.

Further details are available on specific areas within County Cavan, Monaghan and Meath 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.

NBI has made recent improvements to their website, creating a portal that will serve as a means for Oireachtas members to proactively search for information relevant to their county/local area. The portal provides an up-to-date picture of NBI’s deployment schedule across the 227 Deployment Areas (DAs) in all 26 counties. A particular county can be selected to view an update of the overall number of premises in the Intervention Area, the overall NBP investment in the county, the number of premises passed and connected to date and the status of each of the Deployment Areas with the anticipated date for connection over the lifetime of the project. The dedicated webpage can be accessed here: 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 02 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 school SCPs. In County Cavan 12 BCPs have been installed to date with 15 in County Meath and 16 in County Monaghan respectively.

In County Cavan 19 schools BCPs have been installed by NBI to date for educational access with 21 in Meath and 12 in Monaghan. 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/.