Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The national broadband plan outlined the Government's commitment to deliver a high-speed broadband connection to every citizen and business in Ireland, regardless of location. It reflects the Government and European objectives to deliver new opportunities for jobs, growth and social inclusion. The digital agenda for Europe commits to the delivery of 30 Mbps broadband to all citizens by 2020. This was to be achieved through a combination of commercial and State investment.

The commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing approximately €2.5 billion in network upgrades. Approximately 1.6 million of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland are expected to have access to commercial high-speed broadband services over the next number of years. These very significant investments represent a step change in the quality of broadband services available.

While the enhanced investment by industry is very much welcome, it is exacerbating the divide between those areas benefitting from the accelerated commercial investment and other areas, predominantly rural, where available commercial speeds remain very basic. The Government's broadband intervention will ensure the availability of high-quality future-proofed broadband services to all other parts of the country. It is anticipated that speeds of at least 30 Mbps will be delivered through the Government's intervention and the network will be designed to cater for future increased demand from consumers and business.

To definitively address the broadband challenges faced by Ireland, the State intervention under the national broadband plan will present a long term future-proofed solution which will address those areas of the country identified in the mapping exercise conducted last year with no present or planned next-generation access services. Through the national broadband plan, it is our objective to ensure that all citizens in every part of the country have access to high-speed, high-quality broadband services that will put Ireland at top of the class in terms of access to broadband services throughout Europe.

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