Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the recent EU survey of enterprises with access to broadband which put Ireland close to the bottom of the table and behind the EU average; his further views on Ireland's OECD rating at 22 out of 30; the timeframe in which he expects Ireland to have 100% broadband coverage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35813/07]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The EU statistics agency, EUROSTAT, published a report, "Internet usage by enterprises 2007" on 10 December. This showed Internet access by enterprises in Ireland at 94%, which is the EU average. In all, six member states were at 94%, ten were above average and ten were below average. The average rate for broadband connection was 77%. At 66%, Ireland was among 13 member states which were below average, one was average and 12 were above average. No data was available for France.

It is important that statistics such as these are seen in context. The reference period for these statistics was 2006. Since then, Ireland has experienced and continues to experience considerable growth in broadband. A recent report from the OECD shows that we have the strongest per capita subscriber growth in the OECD, with Ireland adding 6.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year, almost double the OECD average of 3.65 per 100 inhabitants. More than 20 operators provide broadband services in Ireland over a range of platforms; DSL, cable, wireless, mobile and satellite.

ComReg's latest quarterly report published yesterday shows broadband take-up continues to grow strongly. In Quarter 3, broadband subscriptions grew by 8% to more than 700,000, which represents year-on-year growth of 61%. When mobile broadband is included, total broadband subscriptions stand at almost 800,000, this brings the total growth in broadband subscriptions over the quarter to 14.6%.

The number of mobile broadband subscribers in Q3 2007 stood at 88,400, almost double that at the end of Q2. Broadband penetration for Q3 2007 is over 16% compared to the EU average of 18.2%. When mobile is included, Ireland's penetration rate is 18.4%.

In the case of business broadband, the near-universal take-up of fast broadband services by bigger businesses is being followed by large scale SME take-up. ComReg's eBusiness survey showed that 79% of SMEs had broadband services as of July 2007, compared to 30% two years previously.

The widespread provision of broadband services continues to be a priority for Government.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

In that regard my Department 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, MANs.

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

The procurement process is being undertaken pursuant to the European Communities (Award of Public Authorities' Contracts) Regulations 2006 using a competitive dialogue procurement process.

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

The Department has invited these remaining candidates to participate in the "competitive dialogue" phase of the procurement process and to present their proposed solutions to meet the Department's requirements for the delivery of broadband to the unserved areas of the country. It is anticipated that a preferred bidder will be selected and appointed in June 2008.

Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. We must focus on the purpose of the question which relates to enterprises with ten or more employees. Although these are not major enterprises it is clear that broadband access remains a major issue. We lag behind and no amount of statistics will change this fact. In the most recent report, we were at 66%. At that time, the UK was at 78% and little Malta was at 89%.

I accept we have had an increase and it is proper and right because we started from such a low base. However, as we move other countries move further ahead and this affects our competitiveness. What will the Minister do at a practical level to deal with the complaints in the IT sector in particular about the issues of quality and cost of low penetration? It has been described as a joke. People have stated they are embarrassed about the relationship between broadband and business in Ireland.

When will the needs of teleworkers in rural areas be met? I do not expect the Minister to know where Preban is in south Wicklow but I want him to know that 25 householders in the parish need broadband. Some of them could stay at home and work much more productively if they had broadband, rather than being stuck in traffic jams trying to get to work in Dublin, but they have no means of accessing a broadband service. Despite being part of Enterprise Ireland, they are not being catered for.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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I accept that Ireland has lagged behind other countries, primarily as a result of an initial lack of investment in our incumbent network and a lack of competition between cable operators and the incumbent. Competition has been the main driver of competition in other countries and is the reason they are ahead of us. We must also acknowledge that with subscriber growth here twice the OECD average and at the top of the range, Ireland is catching up. This is not sufficient and we must move beyond catching up and start leading. To do this, we must examine developments in successful countries such as Britain, the Netherlands and states of a similar size to Ireland where competitive markets have been the main drivers for broadband bandwidth increases and price reductions, the two key developments required here. Once Ireland has attained universal coverage, the key issues will be the speed and cost of broadband services. We must continue to increase broadband penetration and speeds and reduce prices.

On the secondary issue of rural and isolated areas, to take the example of County Wicklow, the Department is working on a competitive tendering process to provide universal coverage and ensure no area is left behind. Four applicants have applied under the scheme. The complicated and detailed competitive tendering process will be completed in the second quarter of 2008 and contracts will be ready by June. This will be a significant development in terms of further competition, particularly in the areas in question.

To return to my main point, the reason the figures on broadband uptake in Ireland are encouraging is that we are seeing rapid uptake of mobile broadband services. This may be for geographical reasons as it is more difficult in Ireland to get broadband into very dense developments when compared to other countries. Mobile penetration combined with much greater development of broadband by the cable operator and other wireless and satellite operators is leading to a more competitive market. We must push this development in order that companies compete effectively to deliver better quality services at a lower price.

Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Contracts will not be ready until June. That is a change.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the money allocated in budget 2008 to the national broadband scheme, MANs phase II, and other information and communications technology schemes his Department may have identified; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35785/07]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The provision of broadband services is, in the first instance, a matter for the private sector. Broadband service providers operate in a fully liberalised market, regulated by the independent Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg. The widespread provision of broadband services continues to be a priority for the Government. In that regard, my Department has undertaken initiatives to address the gaps in broadband coverage. These include investment in metropolitan area networks, MANs, the concluded group broadband scheme, GBS, and the recently announced national broadband scheme, NBS.

An indicative €435 million of Exchequer funds has been provided for the communications and broadband programme in the national development plan. To date, €35 million has been spent on broadband initiatives during 2007, including phase II of the metropolitan area networks programme and national broadband scheme. It is anticipated that the full €435 million will be fully utilised over the lifetime of the NDP. It is not possible at this stage to give a detailed breakdown of the approximately €400 million that remains to be allocated over the period of the plan. Some of this allocation will be expended in the NBS and commitments under phase II of the MANs programme.

In the recent 2008 budget, provision was made of €53.634 million in my Department's Vote for the information and communications technology programme. This allocation will be used in 2008 to fund MANs and NBS projects, as well as other information and communications technology programme initiatives. As the NBS is going through a tendering process, I am not in a position at this time to give details of the breakdown of funding.

A value for money and policy review of phase I of the MANs programme will be completed and published in January 2008. In the circumstances, I consider it prudent that further contracts for the construction of new MANs networks should not be signed until I have had an opportunity to consider and assess the implications of the value for money report and the outcome of the consultation on the next generation broadband policy paper.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the increase in funding in this area, which I hope reflects a realisation that we need to front-load money allocated in the national development plan for telecommunication infrastructure. When will the report on the next generation network consultation process be available? Why is the Minister unable to provide additional details on how the budget for next year will be split behind MANs, the national broadband strategy and what he describes as "other information and communications technology programme initiatives"? Surely when he makes a pitch for money from the Department of Finance, he must indicate what he plans to do with it. Why can he not provide more detail?

I assume the Minister is aware that the broadband challenge for Ireland is not only to achieve broadband access for the 15% or 20% of the country that does not have it but also to achieve next generation network capacity, namely, higher speeds. While we try to catch up in terms of first generation broadband connectivity, we are falling further behind in terms of speeds. On average, the advertised download speed here is three megabits, the third worst figure of 35 countries in the OECD. The average advertised speed in France is 44 megabits, in Sweden it is 21 megabits, in Italy it is 13 megabits and in the United Kingdom it is ten megabits. What specific measures does the Minister have in mind to front-load capital investment to try to kickstart the provision of high speed next generation networks by assisting the private sector using the capital available under the national development plan and next year's budget?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The report on the next generation network will be completed in early January when it will be sent to a national advisory panel I will establish to obtain an outside opinion. As this is a complicated area, it is good to examine international experience and precedents. The report will be published after the panel's work is completed. This will be a short process which will last for weeks rather than months.

The Deputy asked the reason I will not provide details on expenditure. The Department is engaged in a competitive tendering process in which it is seeking tenders from corporations for a national broadband scheme in which they will provide services with State support. If I was to give a breakdown of the scheme, it would give an indication, from the Government side, as to the possible financial picture. It would be highly inappropriate in a competitive tendering process to flag what the Department would consider a budget allocation. For this reason, I will not break down the figure further.

The Deputy is correct that the debate must be about how, in a fast changing world in which broadband penetration is increasing dramatically and technology and bandwidth are increasing, we move to much higher bandwidth speeds. It is encouraging that the incumbent, Eircom, is rolling out, in a large number of exchanges, a new 12 megabit DSL connection facility. The mobile operators, which have experienced remarkable growth in the past two quarters, expect to double the bandwidth they have available on their mobile broadband services. We will need these increases in speed next year and in the years thereafter to ensure supply is always ahead of demand, rather than lagging behind, as has been the case, and new services, whether video streaming, data upload or home-working, can thrive with much faster broadband speeds. This will be achieved through policy initiatives such as State investment in MANs and support for other applications but primarily by fostering competition between the companies to determine which of them can provide the best service at the best price.