Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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1363. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to concerns related to the poor availability of high-speed broadband an area (details supplied); the actions he will take to address this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42858/25]

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

The BLUE area represents 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.

According to the records available on ComReg's website - bbchecker.comreg.ie/ , the vast majority of premises in the locations have access to high-speed broadband. Residents may wish to contact the service providers to address any issues with this service.

As per information available at openeir.ie/fibre/broadband-checker the areas are also included in open eir Full Fibre deployment programme and some areas can currently order a full fibre gigabit connection. 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 remaining areas, 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 gov.ie/en/publication/5634d-national-broadband-plan-map/ and the department will escalate with the commercial operator to investigate this matter further.