Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 March 2026
562. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the options available to residents in an estate (details supplied) regarding broadband services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16992/26]
View answerThe National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the Government initiative to deliver high-speed broadband to all premises in Ireland. In addition, Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy published in December 2022, sets out a number of targets including that all Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028.
The estate in question is in the BLUE area on the broadband map which is available on https://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. The Department defines high-speed broadband as a connection with minimum speeds of 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload.
The activities of commercial operators delivering high-speed broadband within BLUE areas are not planned or funded by the State and the Department has no statutory authority to intervene in that regard.
If a person lives in the BLUE area and after contacting their Retail Service Provider are advised they cannot get access to greater than 30Mbps, they should raise a query by clicking on “contact us” in the Contact section on https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/5634d-national-broadband-plan-map/ and the Department will escalate with the commercial operator to investigate this matter further.
The estate in question is currently capable of receiving speeds in excess of 30 Mbps from open eir’s local High Speed Broadband cabinet per information available at https://bbchecker.comreg.ie/.
The estate is also included in open eir’s Full Fibre to the Home (FTTH) deployment programme per information available at https://www.openeir.ie/fibre/broadband-checker. The Department does not have sight of information that provides an estimated timeline of when commercial operators will provide a full fibre connection to the area, other than what’s on the open eir messaging.
Commercial operators continue to upgrade their networks throughout the State to primarily urban areas and contribute materially to achieving the Digital Connectivity Strategy targets. Commercial operators have indicated that their networks will be upgraded to all urban areas by 2028.
The Department is continuing to monitor these upgrades to ensure any unnecessary barriers to this investment are addressed so that the risk of any potential areas where the availability of Gigabit connectivity services is limited is mitigated. These measures include making the processes to access existing infrastructure easier and ensuring new housing developments are designed to facilitate telecommunications connectivity from the outset.
