Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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46. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the measures being taken within his Department to ensure equality in the roll-out of broadband services for rural areas, rural communities and regional towns under the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38310/16]

Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the measures being taken within his Department to ensure equality in the roll-out of broadband services for rural areas, rural communities and regional towns under the national broadband plan.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The national broadband plan aims to deliver high-speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The programme for Government commits to the delivery of the national broadband plan as a matter of priority.  This is being achieved through private investment by commercial telecommunications companies, at a rate of some €1.4 million per day, and through State intervention in areas where commercial investment has not been fully demonstrated. 

The Department is now in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll out a new high-speed broadband network to over 750,000 premises in Ireland, covering 100,000 km of road network and 96% of the land area of Ireland.

The programme for Government also commits to measures to assist in the roll-out of the national broadband plan State intervention network once a contract is awarded. In this regard, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Heather Humphreys, is leading on the establishment of two regional action groups working with local authorities, local enterprise offices and other relevant agencies to unlock barriers to investment in mobile and broadband services.  Since July, there has been significant progress made in discussions with the key stakeholders, including local authority management representation, Government Departments and State agencies, as well as interaction with ComReg and telecoms operators.

The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht and I also established a mobile phone and broadband task force in July 2016. The task force will recommend practical actions that can be taken in the short term to improve mobile phone and broadband access in Ireland. The work of the task force will also assist local authorities in preparing for the roll-out of the new national broadband network once the contract or contracts are in place. I expect that the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and I will bring the report of the task force to Government in the coming weeks.

I am satisfied that the combination of initiatives to improve wireless services and the procurement process to deliver a new high-speed broadband network under the national broadband plan will put Ireland to the forefront internationally in terms of connectivity, and ensure that high-speed broadband services are universally available across the country.

Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his response and acknowledge that he has taken on a very difficult brief with the best of intentions since the Taoiseach announced his appointment in May last. However, I remain gravely concerned that the need for prioritisation of broadband roll-out for rural areas is being severely underestimated within the Government’s national broadband plan. Many rural and regional towns are being forced to endure unacceptably substandard broadband services as a result of the current digital divide.

The recently released switcher report revealed that certain parts of rural Ireland have broadband speeds 36 times slower than speeds in our capital. It is simply not acceptable that homeowners and business owners in areas such as Clonmore in Carlow are being forced to accept speeds averaging 5.58 Mbps, while just 70 km up the N81 in Drimnagh, Dublin, they are among the fastest in the country at 72.15 Mbps.

This example points to serious inequality in the distribution of broadband under the national broadband plan and highlights the urgent need for equality of access for homes and businesses in rural Ireland.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Research by Vodafone Ireland in November found that one third of rural businesses would consider moving their premises to a nearby town or city given that they can no longer afford to be left out of the digital economy.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Deputy is fully correct and this is my challenge as Minister. I am taking a number of actions. I am assisting the likes of eir, SIRO, Vodafone and Virgin with the roll-out of their networks and we have addressed a number of physical blockages to it. We have released the 3.6 GHz spectrum and it will be auctioned early in the new year. This will assist the likes of Imagine and other wireless operators to improve the coverage and services they provide in rural Ireland. We will publish the details of the mobile phone and broadband task force within the next couple of weeks. This will deal with the roll-out of 4G and 3G broadband. I am engaged in trying to use the capacity within the metropolitan area networks to try to release them and improve the quality of broadband in the towns where the network is in place. I am engaged with some of the commercial companies to see how we can fast-track the roll-out of their networks in rural areas. The final piece in the jigsaw is the national broadband plan. We are determined to pursue it and roll the network out as quickly as we can as soon as the contracts are signed.

Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The word is equilibrium and it is equality. I agree that fibre broadband is the way to go, if we can get fibre broadband to every household. However, as a rural Deputy I know it will not be possible. With all the Minister's grand plans and whenever he rolls out broadband over the next number of years, it will not reach rural areas. While it might get into the populated areas, the towns and villages, he will not get it up to small lanes three, four or five miles outside these areas which I represent. There are small, rural areas all over Ireland. We are not talking only about Carlow-Kilkenny. We must consider wireless connection, given that fibre will not reach every house. We must consider both fibre and wireless services. Otherwise, people will be left behind and those in rural Ireland will not get the service they need. We are trying to keep rural Ireland alive and keep the country going. Rural Ireland must play its part in the country.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I can imagine where the Deputy is coming from. The commercial companies are rolling out fibre broadband in rural areas across the country. It can be done.

Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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To reach every household?

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The three consortia involved in the national broadband plan are saying that for the vast majority of homes they will provide fibre to the door. The European Commission is talking about 1,000 Mbps going to homes across the country. We cannot do that with wireless technology at the moment. Wireless can meet our short-term need and that is why I am supporting wireless. I have met with all the wireless operators and I have actively encouraged them. They have raised a number of bottlenecks in the system which I am addressing. This is why I am releasing the 3.6 GHz spectrum, specifically to allow the wireless networks to roll it out pending the roll-out of the national broadband plan.

People will not need up to 1,000 Mbps in rural areas in the next five or ten years, but they may need it in 15 years. Deputy Eugene Murphy will acknowledge that the most rural constituency in the country, bar none, is Roscommon-Galway. I know, because I am getting it in the neck first hand about the problems there. I am determined to ensure this network is rolled out in every single constituency and county together. Nobody will be first and nobody will be last. Everybody will get access to a high-speed network, no matter how isolated they are.