Nicky McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 73: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of qualifying applicants who now remain in the rural broadband scheme since the deadline of 2 March; the length of time it is proposed to allow operators in which to provide services to those remaining; and if any of the €17.9m budgeted for this scheme has been allocated to other projects or purposes. [14660/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Rural Broadband Scheme 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 broadband provision, mainly due to technical difficulties. This Scheme is aimed at making a basic broadband service available to those individual unserved premises in rural non-National Broadband Scheme areas who wish to avail of such services. Approximately 3,700 applications qualified under the Scheme and the Verification Phase of the Scheme is now underway. Under this phase, the details of applicants have been passed to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who are participating in the Scheme and these companies have responded to my Department indicating where they may be able to offer services.

Letters were issued to applicants on 17 February asking them to give their consent to be contacted by those ISPs who had indicated that they could offer them a service. The deadline for the return of consent forms has been extended to 16 March 2012 and reminder letters have been issued to applicants who have not yet responded.

After the new deadline has passed, my Department will be providing further information to the participating ISPs to enable them to write to applicants with offers of service. I expect that these written offers will be sent out in April and, subject to final agreement with the ISPs concerned, the provision of services to applicants during this phase of the Scheme will be carried out over the period May to July this year.

The response to date by industry suggests that virtually all premises in the country are capable of obtaining a broadband service from a supplier using one of the available technology platforms i.e. DSL, fixed or mobile wireless, cable or satellite. Where a commercial service has been shown to be available, the State cannot intervene with a subvention for alternative services.

While it is not possible to say definitively at this stage what amount, if any, of the EU funding available for this project through the Rural Development Programme will be required, I can assure the Deputy that it is the intention of both the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to ensure that the fund is fully utilised for rural development measures and that there is no loss of funding for Ireland as a whole.

Nicky McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 74: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if the report of the broadband taskforce will be published, and the date of same; and if there will be a period of public consultation on the report. [14663/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Next Generation Broadband Taskforce (NGBT) has proven to be a very useful forum for detailed discussions with some industry stakeholders on their views regarding the optimal policy required to facilitate investment in next generation broadband infrastructure. The Taskforce is currently finalising its deliberations. I expect it will conclude its deliberation in the coming weeks. The next steps, following completion of the NGBT report, will be to bring the report to Government before consulting with the wider public for their views. Building on the work of the Taskforce, it is my intention to publish a National Broadband Plan for Ireland later this year which will set out a range of policy commitments and actions aimed at accelerating the rollout of high speed broadband across Ireland.