Ms Katherine Licken:

On the issue of statistics on coverage, Deputies Fleming and O'Donovan asked where Ireland lies in the league tables. Since I started in this job I have seen multiple league tables, but we all know what the problem is in Ireland. There are parts of rural Ireland which have substandard broadband provision, and we need to address that. League tables can tell one anything, really. One table can tell one the exact opposite of another, but we know what the underlying problem is and it is our business to fix it. On that point, Deputies Fleming and Griffin mentioned frustration, and it is clear that consumers right across Ireland are feeling frustrated. That frustration will continue until we address the very last premises. We have an accelerated and ambitious roll-out under way, with €2.5 billion being invested by the commercial sector. That will probably cover 70% of premises, but until the last 30% of premises are addressed, we will still be here expressing frustration. Our job is to address that 30%.

Mr. O'Brien mentioned the ESB network. The example in Kerry does not relate to the proposed ESB-Vodafone project. Commercial State companies such as the ESB and Bord Gáis roll out fibre lines as a matter of course when they are rolling out networks, which all adds to the sum total. The ESB-Vodafone joint venture proposal, which is different, envisages using the ESB's distribution system to bring fibre to the home. The plan is not to build just one long stretch of fibre but to have a branch network that can reach individual premises.

Deputies Harrington and Griffin referred to the shortcomings of the national broadband strategy, and we will be analysing the lessons to be learned from the strategy, particularly with regard to speeds. One of the issues I have highlighted today is that we want this to be scalable. Two years ago when were talking about 30 Mbps, people said that would be great but in five years' time 30 Mbps would not seem great at all. The purpose of this project is to deliver a network that is capable of scaling all of the time to meet increasing demand so that we do not have to keep coming back to it. Having said that, the national broadband scheme delivered a lot of new sites across Ireland that are now 4G-enabled. There is an element of scalability but the question is whether it can ever meet the demand. We found with the national broadband scheme that the commercial operators followed the investment of the State. We cannot stop that from happening. We engage in a mapping process and commercial operators tell us where they will and will not go. If they say they will not go somewhere we have to take that at face value and invest there. If they subsequently follow us in there, that is competition and probably normal competitive behaviour, but we do try to obviate that as far as possible.

In terms of prioritising areas, Deputy Dooley raised the possibility of doing it differently, by way of tax incentives or other measures. We intend to identify the priority areas over the coming months as we develop the very detailed strategy. We will be determining whether there are areas that we must prioritise having regard to the fact that this tender will go out to one or more network operators. It will be a balance between prioritising and how a network gets built. There are practical ways to build a network, which means we might not necessarily get to a particular area first, but certainly we will try to prioritise certain areas as far as possible. A tax incentive for the industry is probably another way to do it, but experience tells us that the industry goes to the most commercially attractive areas first, which would not necessarily be the areas we want to prioritise. Therefore, if we give a tax incentive, we might end up with the attractive areas being cherry-picked first. I would also imagine that such a tax incentive would be very expensive. In any event, we expect that it will be one or more seasoned network operators who will roll out the service. The real trick for us is to set a benchmark speed and an expectation of future-proofing in the contract which will force them to move with the times. We have seen so many technological developments in the last two years which show that this is possible.

Deputy Griffin asked about mapping, which is designed to be clear and user-friendly. It will be available online for those of us who have online access. It will be possible for people to drill down as far as their own house to see if they are in an area that will be served commercially or served by the State. It is not a map that will deal with the speeds available in an individual house or the costs charged by the service provider. It is a map which defines those areas that will be commercially served and those that will not, and in the latter case we will intervene. It will be very clear. We have run some demonstrations on the mapping and it is very clear.