Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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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 no later 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).

The rollout of the minimum speeds to all premises in the Intervention Area has been contracted to NBI. The current minimum speed being offered by NBI is 500Mbps, however under the Contract with the Minister NBI must ensure the minimum speeds offered to end users keeps pace with urban areas. NBI must therefore ensure that the technology they deploy to meet this minimum standard will comply with the Contract.

To date NBI have put forward network design proposals for all areas that meets their Contractual requirements. In the case of Islands, I understand that NBI have presented what they believe to be the most efficient and effective technical solution to meet the standards required and the Department is satisfied that end users on the Islands will be served with at least the same quality of broadband as that availed of by end users in other parts of the Intervention Area.

9 islands will commence fibre survey & design activity in H1 2024 – Tory, Arranmore, Inishmore, Inishere, Inish Méain, Inishbofin, Sherkin, Cape Clear & Bere Islands.

The Department continues to work with NBI and local stakeholders to accelerate the rollout to some of the larger Islands such as Valentia and Achill.

In County Galway, Open eir have already passed over 68,100 homes and businesses in with gigabit services, with plans to pass a further c.33,000 homes and businesses 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 right across Galway, with SIRO recently passing over 32,300 premises for full fibre, and Virgin Media passing over 38,300 premises.

I am advised by NBI that, over 200,000 premises are passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. Over 60,000 premises are already connected to the NBP high-speed broadband network. In the Deputy’s own county of Galway, 16,510 premises are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection with 5,203 premises now connected.

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 is 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 (576,856) or cable (359,669) infrastructure.