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

NBI reports that all 955 Strategic Connection Points (SCPs) sites have been installed before the end of 2023, of which 283 are publicly accessible Broadband Connection Point sites now connected with high-speed broadband service through a service provider contract with Vodafone. The remaining 672 installed SCPs are part of the SCP Schools Programme.

The remaining targets will be achieved through commercial operators investing in their networks, complemented by the State’s National Broadband Plan intervention. When taken together, all premises in the State will have access to high-speed broadband in every part of the country no matter how remote.

My Department is aware that, due to the age of some estates, there may be no ducting in place to individual premises and therefore the commercial operators such as Open eir and Siro may face additional connection challenges and therefore may not have immediate plans to upgrade the estate to full fibre broadband. The Department will continue to engage with commercial operators to clarify their plans in this regard.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The roll-out of infrastructure for telecommunications services in Ireland is primarily a matter for private mobile network operators, operating on a commercial basis in a liberalised market, regulated by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). ComReg is statutorily independent in the exercise of its functions in accordance with section 11 of the Communications Regulation Act 2002.

NBI reports that all 955 Strategic Connection Points (SCPs) sites have been installed before the end of 2023. The remaining targets will be achieved through commercial operators investing in their networks, complemented by the State’s National Broadband Plan intervention. When taken together, all premises in the State will have access to high-speed broadband in every part of the country no matter how remote.

The BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high-speed broadband services. The Department defines high-speed broadband as a connection with minimum speeds of 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload. The activities of commercial operators delivering high-speed broadband within BLUE areas are not planned or funded by the State and the Department has no statutory authority to intervene in that regard. There may be a choice of operators offering this service in any given area. Further information in this regard is available at www.comreg.ie/compare/#/services.

In regard to Ardee, please see some statistics below:

ARDEE	Premises
AMBER Intervention Area (IA)	300
BLUE Commercial area	2500
Total	2800

For the Cherrybrook estate specifically, there are over 110 premises in the estate which are served from the open eir FTTC cabinet ARD1-004. The vast majority of these premises are getting greater than 30Mbps most are getting speeds of 60Mbps or greater.

If a person lives in the BLUE area and after contacting their Retail Service Provider are told they cannot get access to greater than 30Mbps, they should raise a query via the Department of Environment Climate and Communication (DECC) webform at secure.dccae.gov.ie/forms/NBP-Customer-Service.aspx and DECC will escalate with open eir to investigate this matter further.

In order to ensure that we are meeting the "Gigabit" targets as mentioned in the Digital Connectivity Strategy, my officials are continuously evaluating opportunities for adding premises to the Intervention Area, where appropriate. Alternatively, where it is not feasible for premises to be recategorised, we are addressing the issues through the Mobile Phone and Broadband Task Force (the Taskforce). The Taskforce comprises State actors and industry representatives and is tasked with identifying and overcoming barriers to improved connectivity.

Recent ComReg data shows that Quarter 4 of 2023, saw a 7.51% increase in fibre broadband subscriptions compared to Quarter 3 , 2023, and a 33.33% increase when compared to Quarter 4 of 2022. 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 (667,771) or cable (348,251) infrastructure.