Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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178. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he is aware that residents in a location (details supplied) are not in receipt of broadband. [12816/23]

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, 3 March 2023, over 131,300 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 26 counties, with over 120,500 premises passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. As of 28 February 2023, over 33,800 premises have been connected.

NBI has advised that 15,892 premises in County Cork are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection. As of 28 February 4,718 premises have been connected in County Cork.

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.

Each DA creates a ‘fibre ring’ which is essential to ensure reliability, robustness and resilience. Critical to the success of the network, NBI’s fibre rings are built with back-ups, ensuring that in the event of one fibre cable being disrupted, the whole network continues to perform, protecting customer experience. Each fibre ring that NBI deploys is designed in a way that is non-discriminatory, meaning that as the rollout progresses, it may pass relatively urban areas at the same time as passing some of the most remote premises within the intervention area. The design utilises existing infrastructure to a very significant degree.

The NBP network build that started in 2020 is scheduled to be completed by 2027. NBI advise that the premises referred to in the question is at a status of “Network Build in Progress” with an anticipated date of connection of January 2024 – June 2024.

NBI have created 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: nbi.ie/reps

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 03 March 2023, 880 SCP sites (282 Broadband Connection Points, which are publicly accessible sites, and 598 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 Cork all 24 BCP’s have been installed. Further details can be found at .

In County Cork 86 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/

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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179. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment further to Parliamentary Question No. 179 of 21 February 2023, if he will address a series of issues (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12890/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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With reference to this Question and to the reply given to Question No.179 of 21 February 2023 whilst all schools in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) Intervention Area will be passed by the fibre network over the course of the seven year build programme, Government and National Broadband Ireland agreed to accelerate the rollout of high-speed broadband to 679 schools across the State with the use of alternative technologies to ensure a high-speed broadband service was installed, with speeds of at least 150Mbps, to every primary school in the Intervention Area by H1 2023. The aim of accelerating the rollout of this high-speed broadband service was to ensure that the children attending primary schools in rural Ireland were afforded equitable education and learning opportunities as those children attending primary schools in urban areas.

On completion of the NBP project, and once sufficient data is available, a Cost Benefit Analysis will be undertaken to determine the benefits of the NBP versus the costs of the programme. In particular the CBA will consider the benefits that high-speed broadband has delivered to primary schools, farms, homes and businesses located in the Intervention Area.

Officials in my Department would be happy to facilitate a meeting with representatives from the organisation referred to and would ask this organisation to contact my officials on NBPCommsUnit@decc.gov.ie in order to arrange this meeting.