Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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90. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the Programme for Government commitments that have been achieved to date; the commitments with regards to broadband across Ireland that have been achieved to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62740/22]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The ambition of the Government with respect to digital connectivity is set out in the national digital strategy, Harnessing Digital – The Digital Ireland Framework that was published earlier this year. The strategy is aimed at driving and enabling the digital transition across the Irish economy and society.

This high-level framework in the strategy sets out a pathway to support Ireland’s ambition to be a digital leader at the heart of European and global digital developments. Core to achieving this will be making connectivity available to everyone, including through the National Broadband Plan, Remote Working Hubs and Broadband Connection Points, with a target of having all Irish households and businesses covered by Gigabit network no later than 2028 and all populated areas covered by 5G no later than 2030.

Last week my Department published Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy which has the aim of ensuring that all sectors will be armed with the connectivity needed to fully exploit digital opportunities, leading to more balanced regional development, while supporting the green transition. The strategy will facilitate greater access to regional talent and skills, and supports the implementation of a range of government priorities

The strategy will be achieved through:

- the implementation of the National Broadband Plan

- investment by commercial operators in Gigabit services ensuring that international connectivity infrastructure to and from Ireland is resilient, diverse and robust

- the transposition of the Communications Regulation Amendment Bill, and

- the implementation of the actions of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce

- the implementation of the National Cyber Security Strategy

Specifically with respect to access to high-speed broadband, as of 2nd December 2022, NBI advise that over 112,200 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 25 counties, with over 101,700 premises passed across 25 counties and available for immediate connection. Construction is underway across 26 counties demonstrating that the project is reaching scale. To date, the level of connections is increasing on a daily basis and is exceeding projections.

Strategic Connection Points (SCPs) are a key element of the NBP providing high speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll out of the fibre to the home network. As of 02 December 2022, 823 SCP sites (280 Broadband Connection Points, which are publicly accessible sites, and 543 schools) have been installed and the high-speed broadband service will be switched on in these locations through service provider contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development for BCPs and the Department of Education for school SCPs. My Department continues to work with the Department of Education to prioritise schools with no high-speed broadband, within the Intervention Area. Further details are available on the NBI website at nbi.ie/primary-schools-list/.

Eir has committed to rolling out fibre to a further 1.6 million premises, bringing their fibre deployment to some 1.9 million premises. SIRO is currently completing the first phase of its fibre deployment and to date has passed more than 430,000 premises with gigabit services and it has recently announced plans to extend its network to an additional 320,000 premises. Virgin Media is offering 250Mbps as a standard offering with 500Mbps and 1Gbps available to many of their customers across the more than 1 million premises that they cover. Many other network operators and telecom service providers across the State also continue to invest in their networks.