Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

How does the Minister square his view with the statement by the Commission for Communications Regulation at a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Economic Regulatory Affairs that the national broadband scheme would not provide 100% coverage. Mr. Alex Chisholm from ComReg indicated that while the scheme would increase coverage from approximately 85% to approximately 95% of the population, 5% of the population would continue to be excluded from broadband services.

Did the Department not inform the European Commission that the national broadband scheme would apply to areas of its map of broadband coverage shaded in green or blue, that is, areas where there is market failure or potential market failure, respectively, and that it considered areas marked in red to have broadband coverage?

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