Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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83. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will provide an update on plans to expand the provision of free-to-use wireless internet connectivity in rural areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56046/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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A key focus of Our Rural Future - the Government's Rural Development Policy 2021 to 2025 - is to optimise digital connectivity to support vibrant, sustainable rural communities, ensuring equality of access to digital services.

While the Deputy will be aware that Wi-Fi is now widely available in many settings, the Government has implemented a range of programmes to increase broadband availability for rural communities across Ireland. The National Broadband Plan will provide high speed internet access to over 564,000 premises nationwide with over 420,000 premises expected to be passed by the end of this year. My Department has established a national network of 300 publicly accessible broadband connection points under the National Broadband Plan including 11 on off-shore islands. These provide free high-speed Wi-Fi at community halls, sports clubs, tourist locations and other public spaces

The European Commission's WiFi4EU initiative provided local authorities with vouchers of €15,000 for equipment and installation costs for Wi-Fi hotspots in public areas. My Department provided additional funding of over €1.25 million to increase the number of hotspots under this initiative, which ran over a period of 3 years.

Furthermore, the public library strategy ‘The Library is the Place’ commits to developing a network of Gigabit Libraries. My Department's funding for libraries supports free Wi-Fi for users along with free use of devices, including laptops and tablets and PC, for use in the branch.

I will continue to support the availability of Wi-Fi in rural areas under the Broadband Connection Points initiative and in our public libraries. There is no doubt that continued support for increased digital connectivity will deliver real benefits in rural communities across the country.