Results 5,341-5,360 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The contract for the delivery of the National Broadband Plan will be signed with National Broadband Ireland (NBI) whose ultimate parent company will be Granahan McCourt Dublin (Ireland) Limited. NBI will be responsible for delivery of the obligations to the Minister under the contract. There are provisions in the NBP Contract which provide for monitoring of financial standing of NBI, its...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The deployment of the network within the NBP intervention area will commence at contract award and take up to seven years to complete. The Bidder is aiming to pass 133,000 premises by the end of the second year, with 70-100,000 premises each year thereafter until roll out is completed. The ultimate take-up of the service is estimated to be around 80%. This will be driven by linking payment...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Social Media Regulation (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: In early March, I announced that Government would address harmful content through the development of new legislation, an Online Safety & Media Regulation Bill, which will also transpose the revised Audio Visual Media Services Directive. I launched a public consultation on these proposals which concluded last month. This Bill will establish, for the first time, a clear expectation...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Online Safety (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: In early March, I announced that Government would address harmful content through the development of new legislation, an Online Safety & Media Regulation Bill, which will also transpose the revised Audio Visual Media Services Directive. I launched a public consultation on these proposals which concluded last month. This Bill will establish, for the first time, a clear expectation...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Waste Management Regulations (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: I have no legislative power to compel a private company to provide a service to specific properties. The obligations on local authorities in relation to collecting household waste are set out in section 33 of the Waste Management Act 1996, as amended. In summary, it provides that each local authority shall collect, or arrange for the collection of, household waste within its functional...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Service Provision (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The purpose of the National Broadband Plan is to ensure that over 1.1 million of our citizens in rural Ireland have the same opportunity to participate in the digital society as citizens living in urban areas. The availability of ubiquitous high speed broadband will bring significant benefits in areas of e-Health, e-Education, smart farming, regional development and tourism. The premises...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Departmental Communications (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: My officials have briefed the person referred to by the Deputy on three occasions. My office issued an invitation to each opposition party, as well as independent TDS, to an official briefing on 8 May 2019, after the preferred bidder announcement, with details of the latest position on the National Broadband Plan including how the network will be built, how long it will take and how much it...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Postal Codes (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: Eircodes are assigned to new property addresses using a valid postal address and verified geo-locations. An Post collects information on new and existing buildings, as well as changes to existing addresses and Ordnance Survey Ireland provides the geo-locations for these buildings. An Post GeoDirectory, issue a new release of the GeoDirectory database file on a quarterly basis to Capita...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Service Provision (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 512 and 514 to 516, inclusive, together. The purpose of the National Broadband Plan is to ensure that over 1.1 million of our citizens in rural Ireland have the same opportunity to participate in the digital society as citizens living in urban areas. The availability of ubiquitous high speed broadband will bring significant benefits in areas of e-Health,...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Service Provision (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The premises referred to by the Deputy is in the LIGHT BLUE area on the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map, which is available on my Department's website at www.broadband.gov.ie. The LIGHT BLUE areas are where eir is in the process of deploying high speed broadband to 300,000 premises on a commercial basis. Under a Commitment Agreement signed with my Department in April...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Service Provision (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The purpose of the National Broadband Plan is to ensure that over 1.1 million of our citizens in rural Ireland have the same opportunity to participate in the digital society as citizens living in urban areas. The availability of ubiquitous high speed broadband will bring significant benefits in areas of e-Health, e-Education, smart farming, regional development and tourism. In April 2017, my...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Departmental Expenditure (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: My Department administers a very diverse, complex and technical brief across critical and strategic sectors of the Irish economy. While it has a total complement of around 396 full time equivalent staff of whom a number are technical personnel, the technical, commercial, legal complexity and evolving nature of sectors with which the Department deals requires access to external professional...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Service Provision (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The purpose of the National Broadband Plan is to ensure that over 1.1 million of our citizens in rural Ireland have the same opportunity to participate in the digital society as citizens living in urban areas. The availability of ubiquitous high speed broadband will bring significant benefits in areas of e-Health, e-Education, smart farming, regional development and tourism. The premises...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: Tetrad Corporation and McCourt Global LLC were the two companies that Granahan McCourt relied on to demonstrate its economic and financial capacity for the purposes of the pre- qualification process of the National Broadband Plan procurement process. The requirements for relying on the resources of other entities, are set out in the Project Information Memorandum including at section 10.2...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The NBP Contract includes change in ownership restrictions that are consistent with normal practice in major infrastructure projects. National Broadband Ireland (NBI) is obliged to seek the written consent of the Minister prior to the occurrence of a Change in Ownership of NBI that occurs at any time from the commencement of the contract up until one year after the completion of...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: Among the alternatives considered following the submission of the final tender in 2018 was the possibility of reacquiring eir or specific network assets owned by eir. A high level indicative analysis based on information available in the marketplace was performed by officials in my Department and by NewERA. Both analyses concluded that the costs to acquire eir would likely exceed the subsidy...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: A minute of the meeting in July 2018 was published last year and was amongst the documentation made available to the Process Auditor. Neither I nor my officials have met with the individual named.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Expenditure (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The total value of payments made in relation to the National Broadband Plan (NBP) in 2019 is €953,120.57 (including VAT). This expenditure includes the cost of corporate and economic advice, technical support and network design, the cost of legal and environmental advice. These services were procured by way of competitive tender. In addition, my Department has staff and other...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 526 and 527 together. The availability of high speed broadband to every home in the country will unlock the door to equal participation in digital transformation which is already transforming our lives and will continue to bring fresh opportunities which will be crucial to operations in Irelands regions My Department commissioned a comprehensive Cost...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Administration (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The European Commission published detailed State Aid Guidelines for broadband in 2013, which the current process under the National Broadband Plan has followed. Member States have a wide margin of discretion in designing interventions to support broadband roll-out and choosing an appropriate intervention and financing model, subject to notification under State aid rules as appropriate. The...