Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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101.To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if and when he has engaged with the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media regarding the number of households in rural Ireland effected by lack of access to broadband through the National Broadband Plan, and in turn are unable to access a service (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32786/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy, published by my Department, sets ambitious targets, which include providing a Gigabit network to all households and businesses in Ireland by 2028 and access to 5G in all populated areas by 2030.

The target that all premises in the State will have access to gigabit broadband by 2028 is on track and will be met through a combination of commercial investment and state funding. There are 2.5m premises in the State and about 77% now have access to a broadband speed of 1 Gigabit or more.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) is currently rolling out a high speed and future-proofed broadband network. 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 672 schools.

NBI are connecting circa 4,000 homes each month and expect to have passed in excess of 300,000 premises by the end of 2024.

I am advised by NBI that over 266,900 premises are passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. Furthermore, over 88,300 premises are already connected to the National Broadband Plan’s high-speed broadband network.

The network rollout for the National Broadband Plan (NBP) is divided into 227 (DAs) across the country. These typically measure approximately 25km in radius and 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 quickly.

NBI also has a dedicated email address, , which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.

Along with the NBP intervention contract, progress is being made by commercial operators in expanding their next generation networks throughout the State and ensuring the targets set out in the Digital Connectivity Strategy are achieved.