All homes and businesses not included in the National Broadband Plan will be fibre-connected in five years.

That's according to National Broadband Ireland's Chief Executive Peter Hendrick, who said indications are the whole country will be fibre-connected by 2028.

Several locations across the country are not included in the NBI plan for fibre broadband – with only 23% of the population being covered.

Speaking to Newstalk, NBI Chief Executive Peter Hendrick said there are now commercial operators rolling out fibre in urban areas that are not included in the programme.

"Government policy or ambition is to follow the European Gigabit Society plan which is that every home would have access to gigabit connectivity – so more than 1,000 megabits – by 2030," he said.

"Now under the National Broadband Plan, our areas will get there by 2026.

"Based on the department's engagement with the commercial operators, they believe a lot of the commercial operators will get there by 2028."

The NBI rollout is the largest infrastructural project in rural Ireland since rural electrification.

Some 569,000 premises are going to be able to access the programme – reaching 1.1 million people.

Over 65,000 farms will avail of it, along with 44,000 small businesses and 679 schools.