Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The national broadband plan aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service.

In tandem with commercial developments, intensive work is under way in my Department to progress a State-led investment to secure the countrywide introduction of next-generation broadband access.

As the Deputy is aware, there was a public consultation and a national high speed coverage map was launched last November. The map can be accessed through a Department website that allows members of the public to see whether their premises or home will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by the end of 2016 or whether they will be included in the Government's proposed intervention. A public consultation on the map closed on 12 February and that exercise will help inform the key decisions that are now required to be taken in order to finalise our comprehensive intervention strategy, which will be published for consultation in July. The publication of the map and consultation is necessary to ensure that the State intervention does not compete with commercial high speed broadband services and is required under EU state aid guidelines. Formal notification will be made after consultation on the intervention strategy is completed later this year. In the meantime, the Department continues to liaise closely with the Directorate General for competition on a range of issues related to the strategy and we intend to be in a position later this year to submit a pre-notification to the directorate.

Intensive design and planning work is under way in my Department to produce a detailed intervention strategy. This will address a range of issues relating to the intervention, including the optimum procurement model, ownership model for the infrastructure, intervention cost and likely market impact. My Department has engaged external advisors to provide legal, economic, technical and financial advice on the various aspects of the plan over the next two years. The next steps will see a further public consultation on a detailed intervention strategy in mid 2015. In this regard, the Department will design a tender in a way that maximises efficiencies and keeps the cost to taxpayers as low as possible. It is expected that the physical build of this network will commence from 2016. It is a complex and ambitious project that is a key priority for Government and for me.

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