Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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463. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to the concerns of residents in an area (details supplied) regarding the ongoing issue of getting high speed broadband in the estate; the actions he will take to address these concerns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33605/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The area referred to in the question is in the BLUE area on the broadband map which is available on www.gov.ie/en/publication/5634d-national-broadband-plan-map/.

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.

As per records available on bbchecker.comreg.ie/ the vast majority of premises in the location have access to high-speed broadband with speeds up to 1Gbps. Residents may wish to contact this service provider to address any issues with this service.

As per information available at www.openeir.ie/fibre/broadband-checker the area is also included in open eir Full Fibre deployment programme. The Department does not have sight of information that provides an estimated timeline of when commercial operators will provide a full fibre connection to the area, other than what’s on the Open Eir messaging.

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 webform which can be accessed by clicking on “contact us” in the Contact section on www.gov.ie/en/publication/5634d-national-broadband-plan-map/ and the department will escalate with the commercial operator to investigate this matter further.

The Department is aware of some evidence emerging, based on conversations with ComReg and commercial operators, that a portion of premises that do not form part of the intervention area may prove not to be commercially viable in terms of being connected to a gigabit network by 2028. The Department are currently investigating reasons for why such instances may arise with a view to identifying solutions.