Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Deputy ventilating this issue. I did not know from the Topical Issue raised, which refers to the northside of Dublin, that he was referring specifically to Bettyglen and a couple of black spots in Howth, where Gay Byrne goes for a walk. If the Deputy tables particular parliamentary questions to me, I will see what I can do.

The northside of Dublin is, in many ways, a state of mind and, generally, is immensely well provided for in terms of the provision of broadband, but the Deputy is right that there are gaps. The eircom programme for the roll-out of eFibre, to which the Deputy referred, is especially exciting. As he knows, fibre-optic is the Rolls Royce of the system. Eircom is getting on with the task and committed to passing 1.4 million homes. I cannot tell the Deputy off the top of my head what the delay in roll-out is in the case of Bettyglen, but I can have a look at the matter and he can also pursue it by way of parliamentary questions.

The Deputy has acknowledged that the State is not a service provider in this market and can only intervene in cases where there is a demonstrable market failure. A great deal of progress has been made and the national broadband plan is a clear expression of the importance of ubiquitous quality broadband to the achievement of our economic and social objectives. The Deputy has referred to the fact that some business people are hampered in the particular areas about which he is concerned. Our commitment is to deliver high speed or next generation broadband services across the country by ensuring the environment is right to maximise investment by the private sector and by State-led investment in those areas where it is evident that the market will not deliver.

Since publication of the plan, fixed line and wireless telecommunications providers have accelerated the roll-out of high speed services. The landscape for quality broadband provision, in particular in urban areas, including Dublin, has changed dramatically as a consequence. There have been a number of significant developments, for example, the programme to which the Deputy referred, eircom's eFibre programme. New technology is allowing eircom to deliver speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Some 700,000 premises can now avail of its next generation broadband services.

I understand that Eircom has rolled out high-speed broadband services in a great many areas of north Dublin, or rather, northside Dublin. Eircom also advises that it is planning to offer high-speed services in Clontarf, Santry, Summerhill, Phibsboro and some smaller rural communities in north County Dublin, which I suspect are some of the black spot areas about which Deputy Flanagan is concerned. UPC is also investing in the network. Almost 700,000 homes now have access to its fibre-enabled cable services and this is set to grow to 750,000. It has a wide footprint in the Dublin area and more than 43% of Irish homes can now access the UPC network. Mobile operators are rolling out enhanced product offerings, with Meteor, 3 and Vodafone having recently launched 4G mobile broadband services which are capable of delivering significantly higher mobile data speeds. Vodafone is also upgrading its 3G services. Sky has entered the broadband market, offering services over the unbundled Eircom network and providing intense competition in the marketplace, which is also driving investment. Fixed wireless broadband providers are also providing dedicated broadband services to customers. Earlier, Deputy Moynihan referred to the initiative we have taken with the ESB in a joint venture with a leading telecommunications company.

See this speech in context