Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I assure Deputy Dooley that we are getting action because I am not waiting around at all. This is why, as part of the negotiations for the programme for Government, I ensured that we established a mobile phone and broadband taskforce to look at areas where we could fast track the investment of wireless mobile broadband right across the State. This is happening currently. There is not a corner of the country where one does not see the signs up for Imagine; and the best of luck to that company in rolling out its network. We can see the announcements made by Westnet and Ripplecom. There will also be an announcement by another wireless broadband company in the coming weeks. Broadband is being rolled out currently. I want to see the high-speed broadband network rolled out as quickly as possible but it is a fact that we are pushing the roll-out of all avenues in respect of broadband, and the taskforce is being successful in assisting communications companies in rolling it out across the country.

It is important to remember that every single second level school in the State has access to a minimum of 100 Mbps thanks to the funding that has already been put in place by my Department. The feedback I am getting from schools across the State is that while students would love access to 300 Mbps or 1,000 Mbps, schools are getting access to broadband, mobile broadband and wireless broadband. As soon as is humanly possible they will also get access to high-speed broadband. This is why we have been successful in starting this process. The first communities in Ireland that will have 1,000 Mbps, and which will be in the gigabit society, are rural communities, on foot of the commitment agreement to which we have already signed up.

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