John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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248. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment for an update on the Eir Irish fibre network programme; the area covered and completed to date; what areas will be covered in 2025, 2026 and beyond; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16983/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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In December 2022, the Digital Connectivity Strategy for Ireland was published and it sets out a number of targets including that all Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028. This target is on track and will be met through a combination of commercial investment and State funding.

The Programme for Government – Securing Ireland’s Future, published in January 2025, sets a number of targets which include the completion of a high-speed fibre network to provide broadband access to 1.1 million people, including homes, farms, and businesses nationwide, by the end of 2026. The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the Government's initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland.

Open Eir and other commercial operators are currently delivering or have plans to deliver high-speed broadband services is in the BLUE area on the broadband map which is available on my Department's website: www.gov.ie/en/publication/5634d-national-broadband-plan-map/

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.

As per records available, Open eir, as part of their Irish Fibre Network (IFN) programme, will provide access to a full fibre Gigabit network connection with speeds up to 2 Gbps to 1.9m premises by 2026 and have already passed 1.3 million premises.

My Department does not have access to the schedule for each deployment by area as Open eir refer to their national rollout figures only.

The IFN candidates are in various stages of design and build as part of the IFN rollout program.

Open eir publishes a weekly list of passed IFN homes to industry and this list is provided at “Ready For Order” (RFO) date for all premises that will become fibre enabled over the following 5 weeks.