Kildare South TD and Chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party Martin Heydon has said that confirmation of an agreement between Minister Denis Naughten and Eir will see almost 9,000 Kildare premises receive high speed broadband by the end of 2018 under a new agreement reached with Eir.

“Minister Denis Naughten this week published an updated map which will now form the basis of the bid process for the state intervention plan.  The interactive map shows the category that each premises in the Country falls into under the plan. I would encourage all Kildare residents to look at the map to see the status of their premises.  The map can be found at www.broadband.gov.ie and by inserting your eircode you will get an update on the status of your specific area.

“As part of this announcement, the Minister confirmed a new agreement with Eir to provide high speed Broadband to 300,000 premises nationwide by the end of 2018, thereby removing them from the state plan.  8,956 of these premises are in Co. Kildare with 5,369 in Kildare South including large parts of Narraghmore, Calverstown, Allenwood South and Maganey.

“Under the agreement signed with Eir, they will be announcing timelines for the rollout of the new areas and are required to provide regular feedback to the Department on their progress and targets. I have been in touch with Eir again this week to emphasise the need for a speedy rollout for the Kildare South areas in the new plan.

“The Minister and his Department have been working with commercial providers to confirm details of the state intervention map for Broadband.  Where the Department believes commercial operators are not going to supply an area, these areas have been moved back into the state intervention scheme.

“With the finalisation of the Broadband map one of the key uncertainties in the procurement process has now been removed. The tender process for these state funded areas is now proceeding with the updated map and will allow us to move closer to our goal of ensuring all premises in Ireland will have access to high speed broadband.”