Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this very important matter. It not only impacts on the rural parts of south Kildare but also is an issue throughout the country. I thank the Minister for attending to address the matter personally. I start by acknowledging the role the Minister and his Department have played in addressing the structural deficit in certain parts of Ireland outside the larger urban areas and the deficiency in certain areas which lack high-speed broadband. I acknowledge in particular the recent capital programme of State expenditure which is the first in which we have seen significant direct Exchequer funding for broadband provision. Normally, capital plans cover only schools, hospitals, physical buildings and roads, but this is a real recognition that broadband, which is perhaps invisible, is equally important infrastructure for the State. The money is required for the Minister to do his job because this is very frustrating for those who have not benefited from high-speed broadband. I have been frustrated by the amount of time that has been wasted in the past and the years of underinvestment in this area.

I raise this matter today because it is timely to do so. A year ago today, the Minister published the national high-speed coverage map for 2016 which marked out areas in blue and amber depending on whether they were going to get commercial high-speed broadband from the private sector or needed State-led intervention.

I note from recent responses by the Minister to parliamentary questions that his Department intends to publish an updated version of the map before the end of the year and hopes to proceed to formal procurement, which would be welcome. The updated map will take account of details relating to proposed new commercial investments that have been unveiled during the year.

I have concerns about specific areas in my constituency, including Narraghmore, Calverstown, Kilmeage, Brannockstown and Maganey, which were marked in amber on the Minister's map one year ago and were due for State-led intervention. Subsequently, they were included in Eircom's fibre broadband roll-out plan last June. This was met with much local enthusiasm, as something was finally going to happen. However, despite my repeated requests of eir, as it is now known, I have been unable to get a clear timeframe for this. That worries me. I am afraid that those areas will be excluded from the updated version of the map of State-led intervention that the Minister is about to publish because we will not have a commitment from the private sector on when it will invest in broadband.

We must ensure that an area that has been removed from the map is not adversely affected by a delay. Private operators may try a land grab, take as many areas from the State as they can and stockpile business for themselves in the years to come without being held to clear timelines for roll-outs. Will the Minister assure me that the areas removed from the State intervention map will receive high-speed broadband roll-outs in a shorter timeframe or, at the very least, in the same amount of time as those areas covered by the map? Other areas in my constituency, such as Moone, Allenwood, Ballitore and Ballymore Eustace, were included in previous Eircom plans but are still awaiting commencement.

As the Minister knows, broadband is no longer a luxury. It is a daily necessity for most adults and children. It is used for work, education and social purposes and is one of the first services that we look to when moving to new premises. It is crucial that we get this process right. Before the Minister publishes a new map and we move to procurement, we should have clear commitments.

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I agree with him on the importance of broadband infrastructure. He was correct in that, when we traditionally spoke about infrastructure, we meant physical infrastructure like roads and other big-ticket infrastructure that was important to a modern economy. Now, though, we must speak of the digital infrastructure. Broadband is at the centre of that. The Deputy was right to lay emphasis on the necessary digital infrastructure for our economy.

The Government's national broadband plan is delivering high-speed broadband to every citizen and business in Ireland. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment by telecoms operators and a proposed State intervention where the commercial sector will not invest. The high-speed broadband map that I published last year provides detailed information on commercial investment areas and the proposed intervention area. It covers more than 50,000 townlands in every county, including Kildare.

I understand that high-speed broadband services have been rolled out to more than 55,000 premises in County Kildare to date, with more than 12,500 more expected to be served by commercial investment by the end of 2016. Approximately 20,500 remaining premises in Kildare will either be covered by further commercial investment or will be targets for proposed State intervention.

Ireland's proposed broadband intervention strategy, which I published on 15 July, sets out a series of detailed proposals by the Government in respect of the proposed State intervention. Some 41 submissions have been received arising from the recent public consultation on the draft intervention strategy. These are being carefully considered with a view to finalising the strategy by the end of this year, as the Deputy mentioned. A detailed procurement process will then be undertaken in order to select a potential bidder or bidders in line with all EU and national legislative requirements.

The Government is determined to ensure that the network is built out as quickly as possible, and engagement with industry stakeholders has indicated that this could be delivered within three to five years of the contract's award. Following this process, 85% of premises in Ireland will have access to high-speed services by 2018, with the balance having services by 2020.

I assure the Deputy that I am alive to the issues that he has raised. However, it is too soon to say precisely how the announcements by eir and other operators this year will impact on the cost to the State of funding our intended intervention. Detailed examination and analysis of all commercial proposals are continuing. I expect to be in a position to make a final decision on them by December, when I intend to publish a revised national high-speed broadband coverage map showing commercial investment out to 2020 and a potentially revised intervention area.

The detailed scrutiny that the Deputy would expect us to apply to all commercial plans and undertakings is ongoing and is quickly nearing a conclusion. By the end of this year, we will be in a position to make our announcements and proceed to procurement.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his detailed response. Can I take it from him that just because a commercial operator claims it will look after an extra 300,000 households, as was the case with last June's announcement, the Department will not take that at face value? Can he confirm that there will be detailed scrutiny and that an area that was to receive State-led intervention will not necessarily be knocked off the list unless the Department can be assured of a swifter roll-out of broadband that is at least of equal quality? If so, I will be greatly reassured. It is important that my constituents know whether that will be the case.

State-led intervention is the right approach where there is commercial failure. Previous Governments were happy to sit back and leave this to the private sector, which has given us a patchwork map of broadband across the country. Obviously, the commercial sector was always going to look after large urban areas first because they had more customers and larger returns were possible, which meant that small areas such as villages and one-off houses in rural areas were left behind. We have been left another mess to clean up, as we must ensure that everyone gets equal access and the commercial sector does not get the jump on us.

Last year, I surveyed a large number of constituents in my area about the effect on them of a lack of broadband. It brought home to me the positive impact that a change would have. We are a little more than one hour from Dublin. A number of my constituents could work from home a couple of days per week, not clog up the roads, have a better quality of life and be at home at 5:30 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. That is not even to mention children who want to study or do projects online, the possibility of watching television on the Internet, etc. Small businesses must be located in towns because people do not have sufficient broadband speeds to set up at home. For Ireland to develop a more even spread of our economy so that the economic recovery is not urban-centred, broadband is necessary. I look forward to developments in the coming weeks.

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for his support for what we are doing. His assessment of what we are doing and his analysis of what is necessary is spot on. We are rigorously assessing new and existing industry investment commitments in order to ensure it delivers the services that have been promised. The Deputy laid some emphasis on speed of delivery. That is a factor that we must all be conscious of, but it is not the only one. When we assess what we are being told, we look behind mere assertion. That is the point of an assessment process. The commercial operators understand this. Assertions are not taken entirely at face value.

We have our own expert input available to us in order to assess and evaluate the quality and credibility of what is being said and the intentions. The speed of delivery is one issue but there are others, as the Deputy will appreciate.

Very considerable work is being done on this. We are on target to do what we said we would do. When I became Minister, we said we would publish the map in November. We did that. We said we would come back in July of this year with the detailed intervention strategy, and we did so. We then said we would have further consultation in respect of that and the map and that we would commence the procurement process by December. We are on target to do that. We are moving ahead with this project, which is critical to the people for the reasons the Deputy has set out in terms of the economic, social and cultural and educational benefits. The Deputy is absolutely correct in this regard. We are progressing this project and I thank the Deputy for his support.