Public Consultation on the introduction of the European Union (In-Building Physical Infrastructure for High-Speed Electronic Communications) Regulations 2023

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Mr. Darragh O’Brien, T.D., has announced a public consultation on his intention to introduce European Union (In-Building Physical Infrastructure for High-Speed Electronic Communications) Regulations 2023.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment is included in the public consultation material.

A high quality digital infrastructure is important for all sectors of a modern and innovative economy. Therefore everybody must have the opportunity to be part of the digital economy.

‘Directive 2014/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on measures to reduce the cost of deploying high-speed electronic communications networks' (the Directive) aims to enable and promote the roll-out of high-speed electronic communications networks in the EU. With the exception of Articles 8(1) and 8(2), the Directive has already been transposed into Irish law.

Articles 8(1) and 8(2) of the Directive require Member States to ensure that new buildings and buildings undergoing major renovation works are equipped with high-speed-ready in-building physical infrastructure to facilitate the future installation of cables or wireless devices capable of delivering broadband speeds greater than 30 megabits per second.

In order to transpose the requirements of Articles 8(1) and 8(2) of the Directive it is proposed to introduce European Union (In-Building Physical Infrastructure for High-Speed Electronic Communications) Regulations 2023.

European Union (In-Building Physical Infrastructure for High-Speed Electronic Communications) Regulations 2023 Technical Guidance will be published to accompany the Regulations indicating how the requirements of the Regulations can be achieved in practice

Documents should be sent by email to climateaction@housing.gov.ie

The closing date for the receipt of submissions and comments is no later than 5:00 p.m. on 26th of July.

All submissions and comments submitted to the Department for this purpose are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2014, and the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007- 2014, and Data Protection legislation.

Personal, confidential or commercially sensitive information should not be included in your submission and it will be presumed that all information contained in your submission is releasable under the Freedom of Information Act 2014.

Please note that the Department may publish a summary of the responses received.