Cork East Fine Gael TD and Minister for State at the Department of Justice and Equality, David Stanton has welcomed the publication of the national High Speed Broadband Map. The new map is a major milestone in the delivery of the National Broadband Plan which will deliver high speed broadband to 1.8 million premises by the end of 2018.

“Now that the Broadband Intervention Map has been finalised we can see that 300,000 premises will now be supplied with commercial high speed broadband via Eir by the end of 2018. However, unfortunately there are also 84,500 premises who were to receive commercial high speed broadband but who now can no longer be accommodated.

“In addition to showing where broadband will be delivered commercially, the new Broadband Intervention Map also confirms the places which are to be included in the State Intervention Area of the National Broadband Plan. This will allow the three consortia who have been shortlisted in the procurement process to provide high speed broadband to progress tenders and brings us closer to our commitment to deliver high quality broadband to homes and businesses”, noted Minister Stanton.

“The agreement signed with Eir means one house every minute of every working day will get high speed broadband to their door over the next 90 weeks. 300,000 more rural premises will have access to high speed quality broadband – that’s an extra 500 premises every day. Over the last four years commercial operators have invested over €2.5bn upgrading telecoms networks and services. This is a clear indication that the state’s commitment to Broadband is driving investment from the commercial sector.

“In 2016 only 52% of premises in Ireland had access to High Speed Broadband (HSB). With this latest development 77% of premises will have access to HSB by the end of 2018 and the majority of the remaining premises will have access by the end of 2020.

“The revised National Broadband Plan intervention map is available at: www.broadband.gov.ie and I would encourage anyone in need of high speed broadband to log on and check with their Eircode, Address or by zooming in on the map. Areas are clearly marked in Blue, where commercial operators are delivering or will deliver high speed broadband, Light Blue where Eir are to deliver high speed broadband by the end of 2018 and Amber which is the areas which will require state intervention.