Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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188. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will respond to queries raised in correspondence by a person (details supplied) in respect of the frustration felt in rural areas at the delays to the roll-out of the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2861/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Question refers to a premises located in the AMBER area on the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map which is available on my Department's website www.broadband.gov.ie The AMBER area represents the area to be served by the network to be deployed under the NBP State led intervention.

I am advised by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) that, as of 13 January 2023, over 117,900 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 26 counties, with over 109,200 premises passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. NBI has advised that 3,335 premises in County Louth are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection.

The network rollout for the NBP is divided into 227 Deployment Areas (DAs) across the country. These are typically an area of approximately 25km in radius and in total they cover 96% of Ireland’s landmass. The architecture of the network design is specifically based on the design of the NBI network coming from the eir exchanges or the metropolitan area networks (MANs). It is based on an engineering design that allows NBI to reach every premises as quickly as possible working within the confines of how fibre networks are built. Villages, townlands and counties may be covered by a number of DAs which means there are differing timescales for the rollout across county areas.

NBI has made recent improvements to their website to enhance the provision of information to Oireachtas members. NBI has now completed a suite of changes, 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 13 January 2023, 845 SCP sites (281 Broadband Connection Points, which are publicly accessible sites, and 564 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 publicly accessible sites and the Department of Education for school BCPs. In County Louth 8 BCP’s have been installed to date. Further details can be found at: nbi.ie/bcp-locations/

In County Louth 5 schools have been installed to date for educational access. My Department continues to work with the Department of Education to prioritise schools with no high-speed broadband, within the Intervention Area. Further details of schools in scope are available on the NBI website at: nbi.ie/primary-schools-list/