360. Deputy Shay Brennan asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport when fibre broadband will be available to the residents of lower Kerrymount Rise, Kerrymount Close and Kerrymount Mall, Cornelscourt, Dublin 18. [52689/26]

The 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 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 (HSBB) as a connection with minimum speeds of 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload.

The majority of the estate in question can get HSBB with speeds in excess of 30Mbps per information available at www.openeir.ie/fibre/broadband-checker.

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 living in the BLUE area is told after contacting their Retail Service Provider they cannot get access to greater than 30Mbps, they should raise a query by clicking on “contact us” in the Contact section, on 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 also included in open eir’s Full Fibre to the Home (FTTH) deployment programme per information available at 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.

Alongside the NBP intervention contract, 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.

My Department is aware that some premises in the estate in question may be affected by direct buried leads. My officials continue to monitor upgrades by commercial operator’s to ensure any unnecessary barriers to these upgrades are addressed so that the risk of any gigabit service challenged areas including areas affected by direct buried leads is mitigated. Information gathering and detailed analysis is ongoing with commercial operators to understand the full scale of the risk of these areas.

This data will complement the initial analysis already conducted by my Department and will feed into the examination of the optimal policy responses, including cost and legal considerations, to address any identified gigabit service challenged areas. The final scale and location of any such gaps cannot be fully quantified until currently planned commercial roll-out programmes through 2026 are complete.