Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 164, 165 and 166 together.

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 Digital Connectivity Strategy will lead to more balanced regional development, supporting the green transition, facilitating greater access to regional talent and skills and will assist with the implementation of the Government’s Remote Working Strategy, Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy 2021-2025, and Project Ireland 2040.

Commercial operators’ fibre rollouts are progressing at pace. Open eir have already passed over 146,000 homes and businesses in Cork with gigabit services, with plans to pass a further c.73,700 homes and businesses over the next 2 – 3 years, bringing their total fibre-based investment in the county to over €89m. Other commercial operators are also continuing to increase their network footprint right across Cork, with SIRO recently passing over 70,300 premises for full fibre, and Virgin Media passing over 73,900 premises.

Along with the progress made by commercial operators’ in expanding their next generation networks throughout the State, the National Broadband Plan intervention contract provides for the roll out of a high speed and future-proofed broadband network to primarily rural areas. 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, over 213,000 premises are passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. The target for Premises Passed for 2023 (end of contract year four is 31 January 2024) was 185,000 premises cumulatively. This target was achieved by early October 2023.

Over 67,400 premises are already connected to the NBP high-speed broadband network.

In County Cork over 81,700 premises are within the AMBER area which will be provided with high-speed broadband through the State led Intervention. As of 31 December 2023, over 24,700 premises are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network in Cork and available for immediate connection. This represents 30% of all AMBER premises in Cork. 8,266 premises are now connected which represents a take up rate of 33%.

As of 31 December 2021, 4,514 premises were passed in Cork with 1,275 premises connected. As of 31 December 2022, 15,721 premises were passed in Cork with 4,307 premises connected.

NBI further advise that over 4,778 additional premises in two Deployment Areas (DA’s) are expected to be passed by Q4 2024. NBI expect that premises will be passed in 8 DA’s in 2025 with the remaining 14 DA’S having expected completion dates in 2026.

Further details are available on specific areas within County Cork 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.

Recent ComReg data shows that Quarter 3 of 2023, saw a 7.62% increase in fibre broadband subscriptions compared to Qtr 2, 2023, and a 33.83% increase when compared to Quarter 3 of 2022. This demonstrates that the take-up of fibre connectivity for homes and businesses is increasing greatly as the services are deployed to areas where they had previously been unavailable. This demonstrates that take-up of fibre connectivity for homes and businesses is increasing substantially 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 (619,968) or cable (354,074) infrastructure.