Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 November 2025
478. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport to outline the supports available to remote workers and small businesses in towns like Skerries who are still experiencing poor broadband connectivity; whether interim solutions are being considered while full fibre roll out is completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52395/25]
View answerThe National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the Government's initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland. National Broadband Ireland (NBI) is the private consortium delivering fibre broadband in the Intervention Areas.
The Question refers to Skerries which is predominantly located in the AMBER area on the broadband map, which is available on my Department's website [www.gov.ie/en/publication/5634d-national-broadband-plan-map/]. There are no specific supports currently being operated by my Department to connect remote workers and businesses to broadband, other than the NBI infrastructure rollout.
In those Deployment Areas still awaiting the rollout of the NBI network, Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) offer an interim solution. 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 283 publicly accessible BCP sites now connected with a high-speed broadband service through a service provider contract with Vodafone.
To find the nearest public BCP, an Eircode can be searched on NBI’s website ([https://nbi.ie/bcp-map/]).
The nearest BCP available to the Skerries area is located at Man O'War GFC, Yellow Hill, Oberstown, Lusk, Dublin, Ireland. K45 AE80.
