Results 8,881-8,900 of 9,393 for speaker:Alex White
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: The Government’s national broadband plan aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high-quality, high-speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State-led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided. On 29 September the Government approved an allocation of...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: The Deputy mentioned 2011, which is the year he is interested in. Only 300,000 addresses had high-speed broadband when his party was in office, just before the 2011 election. He can talk about works of fiction all he wants and he can criticise us if he wishes, but the lamentable failure of the Government of which he was a supporter is manifest for all to see. The situation now is that...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: It has been beyond talking about for quite a while because, as the Deputy is well aware, we are achieving and moving on this important project. It is exactly the same point he makes each time he comes in here, but he knows perfectly well that all of the timelines that I set and that I indicated in the House when I became Minister in July of last year have been kept. We published the map,...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Post Office Network (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: I am sure we all join Deputy Tom Fleming in wishing Mr. Bobby Kerr a speedy recovery. Mr. Kerr has been doing terrific work for us on this agenda. The post office network business development group, the remit of which is to examine the potential from existing and new Government and commercial business that could be transacted through the post office network, presented its initial report...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Post Office Network (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: The Deputy should wait for the report and see how positive it is. I am confident that it will be positive. The Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection and her Department have a positive attitude to post offices. Social welfare payments comprise a critical component of post office business, irrespective of the size of a particular post office, and support a cross-selling model,...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Post Office Network (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: The Government and I strongly support the maintenance of a post office network across the country. The report, which I will shortly receive and publish, will demonstrate this. The Government's response to the report will demonstrate its commitment to the maintenance of a post office network service right across the country which is viable, remains at the heart of communities and supplies...
- Other Questions: Broadband Service Provision (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: The Government’s national broadband plan aims to ensure every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high-quality, high-speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and State-led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided. In July of this year, I published a detailed draft intervention...
- Other Questions: Broadband Service Provision (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: Under state aid and other EU rules, I am not in a position to specify a required technology but I am in a position to specify that the service would have a minimum download speed of 30 Mbps and a minimum upload speed of 6 Mbps. If the Deputy reviews the literature and the experience in other countries and the technologies that are available elsewhere, he might come to the conclusion that it...
- Other Questions: Broadband Service Provision (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: Full coverage will be attained by 2020.
- Other Questions: Broadband Service Provision (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: In the first instance, the delivery of such an important piece of infrastructure, as the Deputy must know, is a major undertaking by the State. It is a major intervention by the State and is not a matter of, as the old joke went about one of Deputy McConalogue's party colleagues, arriving in a constituency with telephones in the boot of one's car. It is not like that. The facility has...
- Other Questions: Broadband Service Provision (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: The private sector-----
- Other Questions: Broadband Service Provision (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: We know that there is an election coming.
- Other Questions: Broadband Service Provision (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: We know the Deputy is grandstanding on this issue and waving sheets of paper at me-----
- Other Questions: Broadband Service Provision (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: The Deputy must understand, and he should take some time off from the grandstanding to look at the issue, that we absolutely intend to deliver.
- Other Questions: Broadband Service Provision (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: If the Deputy looks at the lamentable performance of the last Government with regard to broadband he will see that we have worked very closely with the private sector. I am not claiming to have personally affixed fibre or any other technology to any individual home in the country or that I have lugged the equipment around myself.
- Other Questions: Broadband Service Provision (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: I did not make any claims like that. What I said was that this Government is working assiduously and in a very committed manner to deliver this. The Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, and myself have worked very hard, not just to ensure that it happens in Donegal but that it happens right across the country. Less grandstanding, shouting and roaring in here and more hard work is what this...
- Other Questions: Postal Codes (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: The cost of the contract with Capita, which was awarded a ten year licence to develop and maintain the post code system, is €27 million excluding VAT or €33.2 million including VAT. This position has not changed since I last reported on the cost of the contract and covers the design of the Eircode, encoding public sector databases, accessing the GeoDirectory database, the...
- Other Questions: Postal Codes (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: To return the favour to Deputy Broughan, my Eircode is D6W WN99. On the procurement issue, Deputies will understand that I was not the Minister during the procurement process. I am perfectly happy to report to the House on precisely what occurred, however. I outlined the position regarding the complaint submitted to the European Commission, which it subsequently investigated. On foot...
- Other Questions: Postal Codes (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: The National Ambulance Service is already constructing a new computer-aided dispatch system to use Eircodes and it will be deployed in its new state-of-the-art national call centre. The licensing terms are being finalised between GeoDirectory and the service, which will facilitate the inclusion of Eircodes in its database before the end of the year. The service has welcomed the introduction...
- Other Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (10 Nov 2015)
Alex White: I do not think so.