377. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the key measures taken to support universal access to high-speed broadband since January 2025; his priorities for same for the rest of 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53456/26]

The Programme for Government – Securing Ireland’s Future published in January 2025 sets a number of targets which include the completion of the National Broadband Plan (NBP). This is the Government's initiative to deliver high speed fibre broadband to 1.1 million people in the mostly rural Intervention Area (IA), including homes, farms, and businesses nationwide, by 2026.

I am advised by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) that a significant investment of €53 million is being made in the Deputy’s own county of Kildare under the NBP. There are over 14,160 premises passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and 14,694 premises available to order/pre-order, with over 6,570 premises now connected. A further circa 840 premises in County Kildare will be passed by National Broadband Ireland’s (NBI) high speed fibre broadband by the end of the network deployment.

I am also advised by NBI that there are over 564,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA) across the State and design work has been completed for 100% of these. These are premises located in the Amber area on the broadband map which is available on www.gov.ie/en/publication/5634d-national-broadband-plan-map/. The AMBER area is to be served by the network deployed under the NBP State led intervention.

The NBP remains on target having already passed over 498,320 premises in the intervention area which is 88% of the premises in the IA. NBI also advise that 524,332 premises, across all counties in mainly rural areas, can now order or pre-order broadband and over 181,190 premises are already connected.

Based on current plans and achievements, the Department expect to deliver the deployment of the NBP by the end of 2026, as per the Programme for Government commitment.

Further details are available on specific counties and areas which can be monitored via nbi.ie/reps. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.

Alongside the NBP intervention contract, commercial operators (Open Eir, Virgin Media and Siro) 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 blackspots 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.