NBI CEO Peter Hendrick and Minister Ossian Smyth, TD. Image: Dermot Byrne
NBI CEO Peter Hendrick has once again claimed the roll-out is ‘on budget and on schedule’, but the company has been criticised in the past for delays and changed its targets multiple times.
National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company responsible for delivering the country’s National Broadband Plan, claims the project is on track to pass 300,000 premises by the end of the year.
The organisation said more than 500,000 premises included in the Irish Government’s intervention area have completed the initial surveying phase of the roll-out, and 243,000 premises are ready to connect to the network. Currently, the majority of the company’s resources are focused on the physical construction of the fibre network.
The National Broadband Plan aims to connect more than 1.1m people across 564,000 homes, businesses, farms and schools in Ireland where commercial operators do not currently provide high-speed connectivity.
NBI CEO Peter Hendrick said the company has maintained momentum this year and that the roll-out is “operating on budget and on schedule”.
“We expect to pass more than 300,000 premises and connect more than 100,000 new customers to high-speed fibre broadband by the end of this year,” Hendrick said. “Almost 90pc of all surveying works are now completed which means a majority of our resources can now be dedicated to the physical construction of our high-speed network.
“Access to high-speed fibre broadband is life-changing for rural communities. It opens up opportunities for education, remote work and business development, ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital age.”
Earlier this year, NBI said it surpassed its target of connecting 185,000 premises by the end of its contractual year. But the company has changed its targets multiple times over the years and has been criticised over delays.
In April 2022, a report by the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) said the plan “does not represent value for money to the taxpayer”. There had been an agreed target with NBI to have 115,000 premises passed by the end of January 2022.
An interim remedial plan was submitted by NBI which had a revised target of 60,000 premises. The actual number of premises passed by the network by 31 January 2022 was 34,454, according to the PAC report. By February 2022, only 6,000 homes had signed up to receive fibre broadband.
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Updated, 2.35pm, 27 May 2024: The article was updated to remove a reference to a 2019 article about a potential challenge to the national broadband plan from private operators because it gave the impression this news was current.
