Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

172. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the solutions his Department can offer to businesses (details supplied) facing closure due to the lack of adequate fibre broadband services; if, in light of the serious nature of the situation outlined and the probable loss of 30 jobs in deep rural Ireland, he will expedite the national broadband scheme in the Tubbercurry deployment area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24254/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Question refers to a business 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 12th May 2023, over 136,300 premises are passed and available for order and immediate connection. Over 40,300 connections have already been made to the NBP high-speed broadband network.

NBI has advised that as of 12^thMay, 2,893 premises in County Sligo are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection with 1,112 premises connected.

Further details are available on specific areas within County Sligo can be monitored via nbi.ie/reps. A county update can be selected to provide 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. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.

The network roll-out 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 network is specifically designed based on the NBI network coming from the eir exchanges or the metropolitan area networks (MANs) which allows NBI to reach every premises as quickly as possible. Villages, townlands and counties are covered by a number of DAs which means there are differing timescales for the roll-out across county areas.

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:

• Results from surveys are sent 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.
• On completion of network build works customers can then place an order and request a connection to be scheduled with the retail service provider of choice.