Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 412: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he can confirm that he has received an application on-line from a person (details supplied) in County Offaly; the status of this application; when a decision will issue on this application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9154/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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My Department has not received an on-line application under the Rural Broadband Scheme from the person named in the question.

The Application Phase of the Rural Broadband Scheme (RBS) closed on 29 July 2011. The Department received 5,000 applications and of these, approximately 3,700 qualified under the terms of the scheme.

The Verification Phase of the Scheme has now commenced. In this phase of the Scheme, the details of applicants have been passed to Internet service providers to assess whether a service can be offered to them without intervention from the State.

A total of 32 companies are participating in this part of the Scheme.

My Department will be writing to all applicants by the end of this month to let them know the position in relation to their application and asking applicants to give their written permission to enable the companies to contact them directly with a written offer. It is expected that the companies involved will then write with offers to those applicants who give their consent.

I expect that a significant number of applicants may be served by commercial operators as part of this phase of the scheme. Under the terms of the scheme it is proposed to procure a service later this year for applicants who cannot be served by any commercial operator under the current phase.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 413: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the efforts being made to ensure that the roll out of the rural broadband scheme and the further phased roll out of the 100 mbs to second level schools, will include a town (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9325/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Rural Broadband Scheme (RBS) was launched last year in recognition of the fact that, despite the widespread availability of broadband throughout Ireland, there still remained individual premises that were unable to receive a broadband service, due mainly to certain technical difficulties such as line of sight. This Scheme is aimed at making a basic broadband service available to those individual un-served premises in rural non-National Broadband Scheme (NBS) areas who wish to avail of such services, including premises in Kilkee, Co. Clare, which qualify under the terms of the Scheme.

The Application Phase of the RBS closed on 29 July 2011. The Department received 5,000 applications and of these, approximately 3,700 qualified under the terms of the scheme.

The Verification Phase of the Scheme has now commenced. In this phase of the Scheme, the details of applicants have been passed to Internet service providers to assess whether a service can be offered to them without intervention from the State.

A total of 32 companies are participating in this part of the Scheme.

My Department will be writing to all applicants by the end of this month to let them know the position in relation to their application and asking applicants to give their written permission to enable the companies to contact them directly with a written offer. It is expected that the companies involved will then write with offers to those applicants who give their consent.

I expect that a significant number of applicants may be served by commercial operators as part of this phase of the scheme. Under the terms of the scheme it is proposed to procure a service later this year for applicants who cannot be served by any commercial operator under the current phase.

In relation to the question of high speed connectivity for the local secondary school in Kilkee, I can confirm that all post-primary schools will have a 100Mbps broadband connection installed by the end of 2014 in a project jointly funded by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR) and the Department of Education and Skills (DES). The selection of schools for connection during 2012 was undertaken by a Steering Committee, established to oversee the implementation of the project and containing members from DCENR, DES, HEAnet and the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE).

I am pleased to inform you that all post-primary schools in Co. Clare, including Kilkee are scheduled to have their enhanced broadband connection installed in time for the new academic year in September.