Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 December 2025
303. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport if reliable fast fibre broadband will be provided in Listowel town (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [67443/25]
View answerThe National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the Government's initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland.
Listowel is predominantly within the BLUE area on the broadband map which is available on my Department’s website: www.gov.ie/en/publication/5634d-national-broadband-plan-map/. The BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high-speed broadband services.
As per information available at www.openeir.ie/fibre/broadband-checkert, Listowel is included in open eir’s Full Fibre to the Home (FTTH) deployment programme and 89% of premises in Listowel are currently fibre enabled. The Department does not have sight of information that provides an estimated timeline of when open eir will provide a full fibre connection to the remaining 11% of premises in Listowel, however, my officials have contacted open eir to enquire about the expected timeframe, when this information is provided we will update the deputy accordingly. It should be noted that those premises not currently served by a fibre connection currently have access to High-Speed Broadband (HSBB). The Department defines high-speed broadband as a connection with minimum speeds of 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload.
Premises located in the AMBER area on the broadband map are to be served by the network deployed under the NBP State led intervention. I have been advised by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) that in the deputy’s home county of Kerry, over 22,830 premises are now passed by NBI’s high-speed fibre broadband network and 23,850 premises are available to order/pre-order, with 6,395 premises now connected. A further circa 5,170 premises in County Kerry will be passed by NBI’s high speed fibre broadband by the end of network deployment.
Further details available on specific areas within County Kerry can be monitored via https://nbi.ie/reps. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries. It should be noted that NBI provide this information for County Kerry based on NBI deployment areas rather than exact county boundaries.
