Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I did not quite pick up the Deputy's last comment. Be it in Donegal or any other county, broadband has been and is provided by the private sector, not the State. However, the State will intervene to fill the gap in those areas that the commercial sector will not service. This is an important role for the State.

Regarding the timeline, we launched a mapping consultation process in November. It allows all citizens and businesses to determine where they will feature in the likely future availability of broadband. The private sector will handle the so-called blue areas and the State will have to handle the rest. Some 52% of Donegal will have to be, and will be, handled by the State.

The overall programme is the equivalent of building a road network of 100,000 km. We must get state aid approval this year. That will take a number of months. We will have addressed a list of questions by the summer. Once we have state aid approval, there will be a competitive tendering process and a contractor or contractors will be in place in 2016. Even then, it will take three years to build the 100,000 km, but we will get on with it.

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