Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

The provision of broadband services is, in the first instance, a matter for the private sector. Broadband service providers operate in a fully liberalised market, regulated, where appropriate, by the independent Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg.

The role of the Government is to formulate regulatory and infrastructure policies to facilitate the provision of high quality telecommunications services by competing private sector service providers. The widespread provision of broadband services continues to be a priority for the Government. In that regard my Department has undertaken initiatives to address the gaps in broadband coverage. These include grant aid under the group broadband scheme, the procurement of broadband services under the national broadband scheme to those remaining areas of the country without broadband and investment in metropolitan area networks, MANs.

By the middle of this year, local and regional authorities will have constructed high-speed, wholesale, fibre optic networks in more than 90 cities and towns under the MANs programme. Wholesale connectivity to international points of presence, also known as backhaul, is available to service providers using the MANs through the main backhaul providers, currently Eircom, BT Ireland and ESB Telecoms. All MANs have the option of connectivity to the Eircom backhaul network and a number of MANs also have additional backhaul connectivity to the other networks. Backhaul connections can be negotiated between the service provider and backhaul provider as required.

Service providers are using the fibre-optic MANs to allow last mile connectivity over a range of platforms, including fibre, wireless, mobile, digital subscriber line or DSL and cable.

A policy paper on next generation broadband is being finalised in my Department and will be published shortly for public consultation. The objective of the paper is to set out a framework for the development of next generation broadband in Ireland, including addressing the optimum role for Government in facilitating the delivery of new broadband services by the private sector. The deployment of State assets, including MANs, to assist the telecommunications sector move to next generation broadband will also be addressed in the context of the next generation broadband paper.

A value for money and policy review of phase 1 of the MANs programme is also being finalised and is due to be published shortly. Both the review and the policy paper on next generation broadband will guide the further development of broadband policy, including in the specific area of future investment in the MANs programme.

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