Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an díospóireacht seo a thaispeáineann tábhacht faoi leith le cur i bhfeidhm leathanbhanda ardluasa i ngach foirgneamh, scoil agus gnólacht sa tír. Is áis riachtanach an leathanbhanda ardluasa agus tá sé ráite ag an Rialtas sa phlean náisiúnta leathanbhanda go gcuirfí é ar fáil i ngach teach in Éirinn. Rinne an tAire, an Teachta Naughten, tagairt don leibhéal suntasach den infheistíocht ón earnáil teileacumarsáide cheana féin. Mar gheall ar an bplean náisiúnta leathanbhanda, tá méadú suntasach tar éis teacht ar chlúdach leathanbhanda in áiteanna áirithe. Bhí rochtain ar leathanbhanda ardluas ar trí as deich nó 700,000 den 2.3 milliún foigneamh in Éirinn sa bhliain 2012.

In 2012, three out of ten or 700,000 of 2.3 million premises had access to high-speed broadband. Today, more than six in ten or 1.5 million of all premises throughout the country can get access to high-speed broadband.

The Government is highly aware that the commercial operators will not provide coverage everywhere. This is where the State must step in with the national broadband plan State intervention area.

As Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and at the Department of Rural and Community Development, where my key responsibilities include community affairs and digital development, I recognise that the national broadband plan is essential to the future economic prosperity and social development of rural Ireland. High-speed broadband is a powerful instrument for the solutions sought by numerous sectors, including business, farming, schools and local communities. It utilises and enhances the potential of existing infrastructure in provincial towns and boosts rural viability. I acknowledge many Deputies have alluded to this.

High-speed broadband provides opportunity for the regeneration of rural areas and the fostering and supporting of small businesses, to allow our citizens who chose to live in rural areas enjoy similar economic and social benefits to those in urban areas. We must realise the immense benefits which will be brought by the national broadband plan and the profoundly positive impacts quality connectivity can bring to the lifestyles and livelihoods of those living and working throughout Ireland, especially in rural areas. As the Minister, Deputy Naughten, has described, the national broadband plan State intervention will bring high-speed broadband access to places which would most likely just have to go without.

As Deputies have also said, too many people in rural Ireland need the State to intervene and bring essential broadband access. They include 542,000 postal addresses, 990,000 citizens, 381,000 members of the labour force, 52,057 farms, 47,096 SMEs, 437 schools and 310 business parks. The motion before the House asks for a review of the case for State ownership. In July of last year, the Minister, Deputy Naughten, stood in this House and confirmed that full State ownership would likely increase the cost of the subsidy for the State. Both models, namely gap funded and full concession, would deliver the same thing to the taxpayer with State ownership being a notional benefit at the end of the contract.

Are Deputies trying to pretend to the people of Ireland, not just in rural Ireland but in towns and villages throughout the country, that a solution to a national project, to build a network that will serve this generation and the next, funded with their own money, should be simple? Of course it is not simple. Do Deputies believe that necessary measures to ensure long-term viability, governance, oversight and transparency in a project such as this are overly onerous and complex? If it were that easy these things would have been rolled out years ago.

Much of the debate has focused on the delivery of the national broadband plan to individual premises. The national broadband plan consists of many strands working together to deliver a digital Ireland. It is not just procurement, as there are other elements on which the Minister, Deputy Naughten, and I have been working to improve connectivity across the country. Many of our citizens and businesses rely on mobile phone and existing broadband. Through the mobile phone and broadband taskforce the Government is making sure that as many as possible of our citizens and businesses have the services they immediately need. This was an issue for the Independent Deputies during the Government formation talks and the taskforce was created.

Prior to the roll-out of the State-led intervention, the Government’s mobile phone and broadband taskforce identified immediate solutions to broadband and mobile phone coverage deficits and investigated how better services could be provided to consumers. The Minister, Deputy Naughten, is planning to release shortly the taskforce’s annual report, which will show the great progress being made. Every local authority now has a dedicated broadband officer, acting as a single point of contact for operators on coverage and roll-out issues. This means that once the national broadband plan roll-out begins, every county in the country will be ready to engage and ensure a smooth roll-out. Local digital strategies will mean that once the national broadband plan infrastructure is in place, every local authority will be able to fully realise all the benefits that high-speed connectivity brings.

Work is ongoing to cut through the red tape around planning issues, with most local authorities now applying waivers in respect of development contributions for telecoms development, and the updating of planning exemptions to make them fit for today's and tomorrow's mobile technologies. Mobile coverage black spots are also being tackled. Local authorities are mapping priority black spots in their own areas and identifying infrastructure that could potentially be used by mobile operators to provide additional coverage.

Other initiatives are under way to maximise and enhance existing connectivity. The release of the 3.6 GHz 5G spectrum in May 2017, to a value of €78 million, will enable operators to provide faster fixed wireless and mobile services to their customers. A total of €8 million is being invested to facilitate the reallocation of the 700 MHz spectrum away from TV broadcasting to support broadband and mobile telephony plans in rural areas. This means valuable spectrum band is being freed up to deliver better mobile data services in rural areas. As the Minister, Deputy Naughten, has emphasised, the national broadband plan State intervention procurement is firmly on track and moving into the final stages.

Considerable effort and oversight by numerous individuals and stakeholders have been mobilised to ensure that the process has progressed to its current advance stage. To divert the process off course at this moment would only serve to delay the roll-out of the essential services, and disadvantage those living and working in rural areas which are covered by the State intervention area. I can see no sense in being told on one hand that the process is taking too long, and on the other to pause it for a period of up to six months. I unequivocally support the countermotion that urges the Government to continue apace with the public procurement to select a company to build a future proofed high-speed broadband network in those areas which will not be served by commercial operators, to ensure that every place in every county in Ireland is put on the digital map.

I will address some of the issues raised by Deputies. Almost every Deputy stressed the importance of high-speed broadband and the need to deliver the service soon. I acknowledge the frustration of people that is evident in the Chamber and in many rural communities with the timelines and the delays. Deputies seem to be reluctant to accept the impact of the Government's national broadband plan in leveraging telecoms investment. In April 2016 52% of premises had access to high-speed broadband and today that figure is at 69%. Why is that? It is because commercial providers upped the ante and upped their game over the last period of time in advance of the national broadband plan because they could see the Government's commitment to delivering broadband to all rural areas. Deputies, including Deputy Ryan, spoke about the national broadband strategy. When it was published in 2008 I was a member of the local authority and vast swathes of my area were deemed to be covered and deemed to have a service, which they clearly did not. Some of that is now being rolled out under the Eir commitment contract and some of it is still to be rolled out under the national broadband plan. The map in 2008 was designed to deliver basic broadband at a low speed of 2 Mb per second. This is about bringing high-speed broadband and having it future proofed for the next 25 years. To suggest it is the same as the 2008 national broadband strategy would be misleading. It is not as it is much more highly complex.

People have spoken about privatisation and hindsight is wonderful. Privatisation happened at that time and we know its history. Unfortunately, the full network of poles and lines and the critical infrastructure throughout rural Ireland went with it and Telecom Eireann, Eircom and now Eir have gone through a series of changes and buyouts during that time, which, I imagine, has not helped the process of delivery.

Deputies have spoken about the 300,000 houses in the commitment contract whereby Eir committed to connecting 300,000 houses, of which 130,000 are connected, and said if it did not do so the State would enact fines. The Minister, Deputy Naughten, will speak more about this in tomorrow's statements. I understand the concerns people have about it, but part of the issue and part of the complexity is when this was decided and when we were in the process of mapping out the national broadband plan, commercial companies did not stop. They did not lay down their tools and state they would connect no more houses. It was an ongoing process. Commercial activity was still taking place while we were trying to get the mapping done. At that stage, it is fair to say, that Eir, knowing how the national broadband plan was going, decided to roll out extra houses. Unfortunately it could have done this for a long number of years before but did not. That led to part of the complexity. At that stage the Government made a decision and, as I have said, the Minister, Deputy Naughten, will speak more about it tomorrow in terms of the 300,000 houses connected under the commitment contract.

I thank all of the Deputies for speaking. I accept and understand the frustrations of people in the Chamber and in rural communities with regard to the roll-out and delivery of the national broadband plan.

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