James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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35. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the details of the programme for Government commitments relating to improving mobile phone coverage; the timeframe for actions in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6089/17]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The question I am putting to the Minister is on the subject of solar energy. What steps have been taken to support the development of same? Will the Minister make a statement on the matter?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The question that was submitted is not on solar energy, it is on mobile phone coverage.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister can make a statement on mobile phone coverage. It is imperative to all parts of the country.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The programme for Government included a commitment to establish a mobile phone and broadband task force to identify immediate solutions to broadband and mobile phone coverage deficits and to investigate how better services could be provided to consumers prior to the full build and roll out of the network planned under the national broadband plan State intervention.

The task force, which I co-chaired with my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, was established in July 2016 and published its report in December. The report is available on both Departments' websites. In producing this report, the task force worked with Government Departments; local authorities; the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg; State agencies; the telecoms industry; and other key stakeholders. The membership of the group included my Department; the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural, and Gaeltacht Affairs; the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government; the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport; the Office of Public Works; NewERA; Transport Infrastructure Ireland; Teagasc; Trinity College CTVR; the County and City Management Association; Irish Rural Link; the Irish Countrywomen's Association; businesses based in rural Ireland; the National Competition and Consumer Protection Commission; and an independent planning adviser. ComReg participated on the task force as an observer in order to provide advice and guidance in its capacity as the independent regulator of the telecommunications market. The task force met approximately 20 times with a number of helpful initiatives emerging in the areas of planning, local authority engagement, and consumer information and engagement.

The report of the task force contains 40 actions which will alleviate some of the telecommunications deficits across Ireland and the implementation programme on mobile phone and broadband access identifies 19 of the 40 actions as areas where immediate and direct action can be taken by Government Departments and State agencies to ensure accelerated benefits to consumers. The work of the task force will also assist local authorities in preparing for the roll out of the new national broadband plan network once the contract or contracts are in place. Each of the actions contained in the report and implementation programme has its own timeframe for delivery, which is set out in the report.

In order to maintain the momentum created by the task force, an implementation group is being established to drive and monitor the implementation of the actions. The implementation group will be led by my Department and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The implementation group will formally report every 90 days to both the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and me, who will in turn jointly brief Cabinet on the progress. I will be receiving regular updates from my officials in between these formal reporting periods. The implementation group will carry out a fundamental review of progress made after 12 months and will also be mandated to recommend further actions that would result in improved service for consumers.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware of the actions in the task force and I am aware that 2018 is the date by which those actions are due to be completed. It is my and my party's view that the timeline is too late and that we need to identify the areas of coverage far in advance of that and to do so immediately. We are 20 years into having mobile phones as common currency and yet we still do not know what areas have comprehensive coverage and which do not. It is a basic commodity. We talk about the roll out of broadband and the roll out of 4G services and more recent technologies but we do not even have mobile phone coverage yet in many parts of the island. Until we understand where the gaps are, how can we begin to tackle it? People experience dropped calls and patchy coverage. People are almost offended by some of the campaigns telling them about the 4G services they can start to enjoy when they cannot even get 3G. They cannot even get 1G in terms of calls. In north-west Kildare in my constituency, which is not a million miles from Dublin, it is a problem the way it is in the west, south west and other parts of the country. We need to bring forward this review. We need to look at the coverage maps. We need to do it in 2017 and sooner rather than later.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The task force is implementing the recommendations. It is proceeding with them now; it is not waiting until 2018. We have started to implement a number of those recommendations even in advance of the publication of the task force report. We have appointed liaison officers in each local authority across the country to work with the telecoms industry to assist it in the roll out of infrastructure across the country. That has already happened. I signed a ministerial order in October to allow ComReg to release the 3.5 GHz spectrum. It will be auctioned off in the first half of this year and will improve mobile phone coverage. Part of the problem we have with mobile phone coverage at the moment is that the allocation of licences is based on populations rather than geographic coverage. It is something I am looking at for the release of the 700 MHz spectrum. I have already given RTE an allocation for funding in the current year to allow it to begin the process of decommissioning its broadcasting equipment on the 700 MHz spectrum so we will hopefully be one of the first countries in Europe to release that spectrum. I would like to see that spectrum being released on a geographic rather than a population coverage basis.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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That spectrum is needed and it is a welcome development. I am proposing an independent audit. It is what is needed to give that objective view of where coverage is needed and where it suffers at present. We are projecting up to 85% by 2017-18 in terms of the four current primary mobile operators but we are not there yet. That still leaves parts of the country unserviced.

I am hearing all the right things. The measures being proposed are very needed and welcome but we have not seen them in action yet. I understand the Minister said that certain actions are already being implemented. They need to be brought forward. The Government, as a whole, has shown a disregard for rural Ireland. The Minister is from rural Ireland so perhaps it does not apply in this case but it certainly applies to the rest of Cabinet. The Government needs to address the issues of rural Ireland immediately as a priority, including mobile phone coverage.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Deputy Lawless and I are singing from the same hymn sheet. The reason for the establishment of the mobile phone and broadband task force was that I was deeply frustrated by the announcement by my Department, before I became Minister, that there was further delay in the roll out of the national broadband plan. I looked at it and asked what we could do in practical terms. I had it included in the programme for Government that this task force would be established within the first 100 days. In advance of the task force being established, I met with each of the telecoms operators in the country and asked them to come forward with the problems and bottlenecks they were having with rolling out their networks. Over the past four years, €1.7 million was being spent every day by the telecoms operators in the country. I want to see that investment ramped up. What this task force and the actions in it will do is facilitate that happening. We have already started to implement them. I am getting regular reports from the team working on this and I intend to see significant movement and improvement, not only in mobile phone coverage or wireless broadband coverage but on fixed line broadband coverage in 2017.