Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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171. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will engage with phone and broadband providers with a view to establishing a system for information on service outages, similar to the ESB’s PowerCheck, which can be accessed by the general public; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6353/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Service outages on Electronic Communications Networks (ECN) and Services (ECS) are primarily caused by mechanical damage (due mainly to falling trees caused by the storm force winds) and interruption to the electricity power supply. Operators of Electronic Communications Networks and Services are obliged to report incidents to the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) under obligations set out in the Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Act 2023.

Repair and restoration work has returned services to all mobile customers. Most fixed service customers and the majority of fixed operator networks have been restored. Repair and restoration of fibre networks is ongoing in certain areas where the storm did significant damage.

On 14 February my colleague, Minister O'Donovan, met with CEOs and senior managers of mobile phone and broadband operators as well as representatives from Telecommunications Industry Ireland (TII) to discuss the recent impact of Storm Éowyn on telecommunications infrastructure, the industry’s response and status of restoration works. The Minister also requested that operators consider implementing a system similar to similar to ESB’s PowerCheck.ie and industry committed to explore the idea and conduct feasibility work.

The Department will work with ComReg and telecommunications operators to improve our response to significant weather events and increase resilience on the networks. Minister O'Donovan has requested written proposals from operators for improving their network resilience and storm response processes.

The Department will incorporate learnings from Storm Éowyn into its plans for weather emergency preparedness and continue to engage with ComReg and operators to formalise storm response processes and the roles all organisations will play in improving resilience, restoring connectivity and interacting with the national emergency response structures.

Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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172. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the efforts being made to restore broadband and phoneline services in areas currently affected by outages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6354/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The telecommunications network is provided by private service providers, operating in a fully liberalised market regulated by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) as independent Regulator.

The estimated effect of Storm Éowyn on the national telecoms userbase was the largest in ComReg’s recording history. At its peak, over the weekend of the 25 and 26 of January, 10% of users of fixed services were experiencing outages while 35% of mobile services users were experiencing some level of degradation of service.

Repair and restoration work has returned normal services to most customers and several fixed service operator networks have been returned to normal service levels. Repair and restoration of fibre networks is ongoing in certain areas where the storm did significant damage. As of 4pm on Friday the 14 of February, 0.16% of fixed service users are without services. All mobile networks have been returned to business as usual.

That notwithstanding, I recognise that areas in the north and west of the country continue to be affected by outages which have been caused by extensive damage to infrastructure in rural areas.

Operators of fixed line services have indicated that full restoration of services to all customers may continue through this week and into the next. They have mobilised all available resources to further the restoration of these services and officials in my Department continue to liaise with them to assist where possible. Restoration has been hampered by the complexity of the repairs required to restored damaged infrastructure. Telecommunications operators continue to engage with ComReg and report outages across their networks.

My colleague, Minister O’Donovan met last week with CEOs and senior management of telecommunications operators to discuss the impact of the storm, the Government and operator response, and proposals from operators to improve the resilience of their networks.

The Department will incorporate learnings from Storm Éowyn into its plans for weather emergency preparedness and continue to engage with the Commission for Communications Regulation and operators to formalise storm response processes and the roles all organisations will play in improving resiliency, restoring connectivity and interacting with the national emergency response structures.