I am raising this issue because so many constituents are having significant trouble accessing broadband throughout mid-Cork. They need broadband to be able to work from home, for college, to run their businesses and for social use. A great number of people from Ballingeary, to Ballinora to Ballyhea and everywhere in between are in the intervention area and waiting for services. While there is a patchwork of wireless operators, including Rapid and Imagine, they are only able to cover some of the area and many people are left without options.

The national broadband plan, NBP, has been up and running for a year at this stage and it will take another four years at least to cover much of the area. It is only covering one area in each county as it stands. In a county the size of Cork, which covers one eighth of the island, this is only a drop in the ocean. Macroom's council area is the size of County Leitrim and there are nine similar areas in Cork. The plan is being rolled out in an uneven way with only one area in each county. Larger counties such as Cork, Mayo and Galway are losing out. It is very frustrating for people who need to be able to access broadband, which should be made available more evenly. It is very frustrating for people when the fibre is so near their home but they do not have access, especially if they do not have a wireless option nearby.

People have also been raising with me how they cannot get a handle on a timeline on the plan. They are left very much in the dark waiting for broadband. The NBP does not seem to be taking on what appear to be low hanging fruit, for example, where commercial fibre is passing homes. People are not getting the opportunity to make a connection to it. From Derrynacaheragh to Coppeen to Castletown and Kilmichael, vast areas do not have the option available to them and are very much dependent on getting the NBP moving quickly.

It is not only an issue for rural areas. On the edge of the city boundary, in Ovens and Ballinora, which overlook the global cloud computing company, Dell EMC, many people are struggling to access broadband services. Even in the blue commercial zone there are serious issues, for example in Heathfield, Ballincollig, where residents have been in for almost 16 months and Eir is still not rolling out fibre connections to them. It does not make sense. We would have expected that within the blue commercial zone these would have been the areas where Eir would have quickly had the service rolled out.

We will find every kind of excuse, from Eircode postcodes not being available to not being able to get on site and so on. This is despite the fact residents in Heathfield have had their Eircode postcodes since February last. Ducts have been installed as part of the construction, the builders have moved to phase 3 and still the fibre has not been laid when people have been living there for 16 months.

Is there some way the Minister can raise this with Eir and ComReg to see if they can quickly roll out broadband in those blue areas, as well as in the intervention area? It is very frustrating for people who have to sit so close to the fibre and not have an option. There are also many people in rural areas who really have no option of getting broadband and who are waiting for the national broadband plan.

The national broadband plan contract was signed with National Broadband Ireland, NBI, in November last to roll out a high-speed and future-proofed broadband network within the intervention area, which covers 1.1 million people living and working in over 544,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms, along with 695 schools. The national broadband plan will ensure that citizens throughout the entire country have access to high-speed broadband services and that nobody is left without this vital service. The national broadband plan network will offer users a high-speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 500 Mbps from the outset. I should point out that this represents an increase from the original 150 Mbps committed to under the contract. The current deployment team forecasts premises passed in all counties within the first two years, and over 90% of premises having access to high-speed broadband within the next four years.

The high-speed broadband map, to which the Deputy referred, is available at broadband.gov.ie and it shows the area in Cork which will be included in the national broadband plan State-led intervention, as well as areas targeted by commercial operators. There are 273,548 premises in Cork, of which 79,424 premises will be covered by high-speed broadband through the State-led intervention. A further 194,124 premises are in areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high-speed broadband services. Government investment in County Cork under the national broadband plan will be of the order of €314 million.

As of 16 November, over 131,000 premises across all counties in the country have been surveyed by NBI. Of this figure, over 16,000 premises have been surveyed to date in County Cork, including in the areas of Carrigaline and Midleton. NBI crews have started initial works with a build in around 4,000 premises in the Carrigaline area, including Fountainstown, Ballinhassig, Monkstown and Upper Rochestown. The first fibre-to-the-home connections are expected next month in Carrigaline, and they will be subject to technical testing and validation prior to wider release of the area. I am advised that, from the end of January, retailers will be able to resell the service and householders in these areas will be able to order high-speed broadband provided via the NBI network. Further details are available on specific areas within Cork on the NBI website, which provides a facility for any premises within the intervention area to register an interest in being provided with deployment updates through that website.

Broadband connection points, BCPs, are also a key element of the national broadband plan, providing high-speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll-out of the fibre to the home network. It is anticipated that some 275 sites in rural areas will be installed with broadband in this way by the end of the year, including 75 schools. As of Friday, 13 November, 147 sites and 43 schools have had those connections installed. The high-speed broadband service will be switched on in these locations through service provider contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development for publicly available sites, and by the Department of Education for schools. These national broadband BCPs are located across County Cork, where the public will be able to benefit from the services at Ballindangan community centre, Aghabullogue community centre, Castletownkenneigh community centre, Lisavaird community centre, Whitechurch community centre and the TO Park in Labbamologga. Further infrastructure is being installed by NBI at Bear Island heritage centre, Laharn heritage centre and Ballydaly community hall, and it is anticipated that these sites will be connected in the coming weeks. Further details are available on the NBI website. Clogagh and Ballycroneen national schools will also be connected for educational access as part of that initiative. My Department continues to work with the Department of Education and the other schools in the intervention area in Cork.

While substantial progress has been made, the Covid pandemic has had an impact on delivery of the network and the extent of that impact is currently being assessed. We have committed to putting in place measures to mitigate the impact as far as possible.

I thank the Deputy. In response to the earlier question from Deputy O'Rourke, I said we had met both Eir and Vodafone to discuss this issue of the customer complaints service. I used that opportunity to also ask about the roll-out of broadband in other areas. There are a number of points. First, the key next stage in the development of rural broadband is the involvement of Eir and the ESB in taking these surveys, given 130,000 houses have been surveyed already, and turning it into a plan, pole by pole, for how we get fixed broadband to the house. The company committed that it would give it full urgency and do everything to match what exists in government and in NBI, which is a desire to accelerate the roll-out programme, particularly because of the acceleration in the demand for broadband services due to Covid. That is possible, and it requires Eir to have a critical role.

Second, the company said it has now delivered on the 300,000 or so houses that it had committed to providing with high-speed broadband in rural Ireland, on time and ahead of schedule, with a huge pick-up in demand. With Cork accounting for one eighth of the country, that would equate to some 35,000 houses in the Cork area that will have got broadband through that service, although I will have to check that figure with the company.

Third, and critically, SIRO, which is a joint venture involving Vodafone and the ESB, has also been very successful in rolling out broadband, more in towns than in rural areas because that is where it has targeted. The Deputy is correct that it is important we get the national broadband plan right. However, it is also important that, in other areas of rural Ireland which are not in the intervention area, in the towns and, I have to say, in the urban areas as well, that we get the same level of investment so every single house in this country has access to the high-speed fast broadband that we need. I am confident in the policy we have, given that there is a variety of different companies which are not competing against each other.

Where that does not exist we intervene in the market to cover the house that would not have otherwise been covered. We will cover every single house in this country and we will do it quicker than the original seven years set out in the national broadband plan. It is essential that we advance that quicker in Cork and everywhere else.