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

In December 2022, my Department published Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy which supports the ambition outlined in the National Digital Strategy and sets out a number of ambitious targets, including that:

• all Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network nolater than 2028;
• all populated areas will be covered by 5G no later than 2030, and
• digital connectivity will be delivered to all schools and broadband connection points by 2023.

These targets will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and through the State investment in National Broadband Ireland (NBI).

Commercial operators’ fibre rollouts are progressing at pace. Open eir, as part of their IFN fibre programme currently rolling out nationwide, plan to connect over 1.9m premises to their commercial fibre network by 2026. Open eir have already passed over 72,000 homes and businesses with access to gigabit services in Co. Galway, with plans to pass a further c.29,000 premises over the next 2 – 3 years, bringing their total fibre-based investment in the county to over €50m. Other commercial operators are also continuing to increase their network footprint across County Galway, with SIRO passing more than 33,000 premises and Virgin Media passing more than 32,000 premises

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) is currently rolling out a high speed and future-proofed broadband network to primarily rural areas through its Contract with the Minister. The intervention area covers over 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 of15^thSeptember2023, 182,250 premises are passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. 53,695 premises are already connected to the NBP high-speed broadband network.In Galway, over 14,200 homes and businesses have been passed by NBI and are available for immediate connection, with c. 4,836 of those now connected to the NBP State Intervention network.

Recent ComReg data shows that Quarter 2, 2023 saw a 7.4% increase in fibre broadband subscriptions compared to the first 3 months of the year, and a 33.7% increase when compared to Quarter 2 of 2022. This demonstrates that take-up of fibre connectivity for homes and businesses is increasing massively as it’s deployed to areas where it had previously been unavailable. The same ComReg data also indicates that c.40% of homes and business throughout the State now have access to gigabit services through either fibre or cable infrastructure and this will continue to increase month on month as operators continue to invest heavily in gigabit networks across the State.