Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 5: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the strategy he supports for an efficient and speedy roll out of broadband to all parts of the country; the timeframe that this can be achieved in; the way the Government will support the process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23171/07]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The provision of telecommunications services, including broadband, is a matter for the private sector. Broadband service providers operate in a fully liberalised market regulated, where appropriate, by the independent Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg.

Nevertheless, the widespread provision of broadband services is a major priority for the Government. In this context, the primary role of the Government is to formulate regulatory and infrastructure policies to facilitate the provision of high quality telecommunications services, by competing private sector service providers.

Broadband penetration has increased significantly in recent years. Penetration levels have increased to 698,000 subscribers which, by OECD measures, is the equivalent of 16.48% of the population. This compares to less than 1% in 2002.

As a result, Ireland has improved its position internationally and Government action through provision of an optimal regulatory regime and targeted infrastructural investment will continue to support this performance. In the latter context, the State has undertaken initiatives to address the gaps in broadband coverage. These include providing grant aid under the recently concluded group broadband scheme and investment in metropolitan area networks, known as MANs.

There are still some parts of the country where the private sector will be unable to justify the commercial provision of broadband services. Accordingly, the procurement process for a national broadband scheme is under way. The national broadband scheme will provide broadband services to areas that are currently unserved and will ensure that all reasonable requests for broadband in unserved areas are met.

The first phase of the procurement process, the pre-qualification questionnaire phase, is now complete and four candidates have pre-qualified. As my Department indicated on 2 September 2007, the four candidates in alphabetical order are: BT Communications Ireland Limited consortium; Eircom Limited; Hutchinson 3G Ireland Limited and IFA-Motorola consortium.

The next phase of the procurement process involves inviting candidates to participate in a competitive dialogue process. My Department is anticipating that the national broadband strategy contract will be awarded in the second quarter of 2008, with roll out of the services due to begin as soon as possible thereafter. This timeline is subject to negotiations with candidates during the competitive dialogue phase of the procurement process.

The broadband product to be provided under the national broadband scheme will be broadly equivalent to the tariffs and products typically available on the Irish market. The most appropriate mechanism to achieve this aim will be decided during the competitive dialogue process.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. It is helpful to know which groups are in the running for the national broadband scheme. I wish to make a reality check for anyone listening to this debate. Ireland is still a long way behind all its direct competitors and many of its European neighbours in terms of broadband connectivity. A total of 7.8% of the population of County Leitrim have broadband and the total in County Cavan is 9.1%. I contest the Minister's figures of 16% which he outlined. Independent estimates would put the figure closer to 12% or 13%.

With regard to the Supplementary Estimate of €16.2 million which was mentioned earlier and which we will debate next week, a total of €10 million of that sum has been diverted from information and communications technology programmes. What is losing out? Will it be broadband roll-out or group broadband schemes? If so, is the Minister transferring money from IT development and broadband roll-out to the greener homes scheme?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The figures are OECD figures, which are used most commonly, although many people would criticise them as not providing an accurate picture. However, there are various distortions with whatever statistics one uses. In general, we must aim to be at the top of the international league, regardless of the measures, and we should not concentrate only on narrow percentages. We should aim to have as widespread availability as possible.

The group broadband schemes, numbering approximately 120, were set up to provide local community-based services, often through small local providers. The thinking in the Department was that this did not provide a proper, comprehensive or efficient response to the problem of connectivity in rural isolated areas. That is the reason for the advancement towards a new scheme, the national broadband scheme. It is far more comprehensive and covers all the areas that would not otherwise have coverage. It is a more effective and innovative scheme which I believe will be successful. It involves a competitive bidding process which, hopefully, as we go through that process will allow us to raise the level of service in terms of the speed of broadband and technical capabilities, while reducing the costs.

With regard to the funding, there was a re-allocation within the Department. There is a multi-annual funding scheme available to the Department for metropolitan area networks, which are a long-term investment and the correct investment for the future in terms of putting fibre in the ground.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Minister must conclude. The time for this question has expired but I will allow a final supplementary question.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Will the Minister confirm that he is abandoning the group broadband scheme because he believes it is not working? The reason it has not worked is that there is only matching funding and the community must find half the funding. It is being abandoned in favour of a national broadband scheme that will happen at some stage in the future and the money is being diverted to a different sector in the Department. People who aspired to get funding to bring broadband to their communities can forget it because the €10 million earmarked for that will now go to the greener homes scheme.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Deputy Coveney is incorrect. The Government is following through on financing the group broadband scheme. All grant applications are set out——

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Where is the €10 million coming from?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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We will deal with that in the debate next week on the Supplementary Estimate.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am asking the question now.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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I was in the process of answering.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Minister knows the answer but he is not giving it to us.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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It is coming from the multi-annual programme in the telecommunications area, particularly from the MANs and other development. The funds were not fixed on any year, which allows us flexibility in terms of payment. That allowed us to transfer funds.