Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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37. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to detail any supports or schemes open to applications from community centres to connect to broadband. [43428/24]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy, published by my Department, sets ambitious targets, which include providing a Gigabit network to all households and businesses in Ireland by 2028 and access to 5G in all populated areas by 2030.

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the government's initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) are connecting circa 4,200 homes each month.

I am advised by NBI that over 300,180 premises are passed across 26 counties, which is over half the premises in the Intervention Area. Over 100,609 premises are already connected to the National Broadband Plan high-speed broadband network.

There are no specific schemes being operated by my Department to connect community centres to broadband.

Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) are a key element of the NBP and are located in areas of community importance, allowing local residents to quickly get free public access to high-speed broadband in advance of fibre deployment under the National Broadband Plan.

NBI reports that all 955 SCP sites have been installed, of which 283 are publicly accessible BCP sites now connected with a high-speed broadband service through a service provider contract with Vodafone. The remaining 672 SCPs are part of the SCP Schools Programme.

To find the nearest public BCP, an Eircode can be searched on NBI’s website (nbi.ie/bcp-map/).