Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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29. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason fibre broadband in Birr will take until 2026 to roll out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41884/24]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, 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 National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the government's initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland.

I am advised by NBI that, over 300,180 premises are passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. Over 99,583 premises are already connected to the National Broadband Plan high-speed broadband network. In the Deputy’s own county of Offaly over 2,810 premises are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection with 908 premises now connected.

NBI have advised that they are actively working to roll-out high-speed fibre broadband in Birr and Offaly. Within the County of Offaly the network build has commenced for 57% (7,234 premises) of the premises in the Intervention area and within the Birr Deployment Area the network build is in progress for 1,853 premises.

The route of the network roll-out is not based on cost or an economic model. Instead, it’s based on an engineering design that allows NBI to get to every premises as quickly as possible, working within the confines of how fibre networks are built and utilising existing infrastructure wherever possible.

NBI provides the public with indicative roll-out dates, based on the best information available at any given time. In relation to the timings and roll-out, Birr DA was originally assigned in Q4 2021 with an anticipated date of connection of January 2025 – December 2026 timeframe and of course the current connection timeframe falls within this period.

One thing to note is the 2026 premises will receive an update later this quarter with a more specific connection timeframe of either January 2026 – June 2026 or July 2026 – December 2026.

The latest information on when high-speed broadband will become available to these premises can be found on National Broadband Ireland’s (NBI) website at . This website is regularly updated providing the expected timeline for delivery and status of any works that are initiated at any point in time. NBI also has a dedicated email address, , which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.