Martin Daly
Question:486. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Minister for Education and Youth the proportion of DEIS schools without high-speed broadband as identified in the digital strategy for schools progress report. [5686/26]
View answerTuesday, 27 January 2026
Questions (486)
Written answers
The Department operates the Schools Broadband Programme at an annual cost of some €15m, providing connectivity to all recognised primary, special and post-primary schools through a range of technologies at the best level of connectivity available based on local infrastructure. The Department is obliged to adhere to procurement regulations and must engage with the selected providers on the DEY framework of providers of broadband services through a tender process to award services. This is the basis on which all state-funding is utilised to ensure transparency and equal treatment for all schools and providers, and adherence to regulatory requirements.
The delivery of high quality internet connectivity for all schools is a key objective of my Department. It is accepted that good connectivity is essential to ensure that schools are facilitated to progress the embedding of digital technologies in teaching and learning and for the implementation of new and revised curriculum.
Under its Schools Broadband Access Programme at least 99% of all recognized primary, special schools and post-primary schools are included in the programme. While the Schools Broadband Access Programme is offered free of charge to schools, schools have autonomy on joining the programme.
All Primary, post-primary and Special schools on the programme have high speed connectivity, with all now on speeds of 100Mbp/s plus up to 1Gbp/s. Additionally all Education Centres are also provided with high speed connectivity through the post-primary programme.
As Part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan supported by the NextGenerationEU Recovery and Resilience Facility the department secured funding for a Broadband Enhancement Project for Primary schools through the Department’s Schools Broadband Programme. Over 990 schools which were included in this project and who were in areas where commercial provision did not provide sufficient infrastructure for high-speed connectivity and were not comprehended in the National Broadband Plan Intervention area, have now been connected to high speed broadband.
Under the National Broadband Plan (NBP) programme, and implementation by National Broadband Ireland (NBI), managed by Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, contained a further 672 primary schools. Priority was given under the NBP in conjunction with the Department of Education and Youth to accelerate the rollout of high-speed broadband to the 672 schools across the State.
In addition, OIDE-TiE manages the Schools Broadband Service Desk on the Department’s behalf, which provides first line technical support to schools regarding their broadband connection.