Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 115: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the number of schools here which do not have broadband Internet services; the number of primary and post-primary schools which do not have broadband; the percentage of primary and post-primary schools with broadband internet services on a county basis; the breakdown of the provision of broadband for schools in Dublin, Meath, Tipperary and Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32526/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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A joint industry/Government fund of â'¬18 million was established for the Broadband for Schools Programme to resource the provision of high speed broadband connectivity to all primary and post primary schools in the country by end Autumn 2006, at no cost to the schools themselves. The initiative was established to address the resourcing of broadband access to schools in the shared belief that accelerated provision of broadband access to schools is a prerequisite to the establishment of a knowledge based economy and that such a development is socially, economically and commercially desirable.

To date 95% of all primary and secondary schools have broadband installed; the aim is to complete the outstanding schools in the coming weeks. Since 2 October, the total number of schools is 3,936, there are 3,759 schools that have had their local connectivity installed and of these 3,751 have had their router capability installed and tested. The number of schools that had confirmed their Acceptable Use Policy status and selected their content filtering option was 3,503. Consequently, 177 of the schools have not had local connectivity installed as yet.

I should also mention that a further 72 schools have had broadband access provided under the Hermes and Advanced Deployment programme and therefore have active broadband connections currently independent of the above mentioned National Broadband Network.

The percentage of primary and post-primary schools with broadband connectivity by county and the breakdown of the provision of broadband for schools in Dublin, Meath, Tipperary and Cork are set out in the following table for the Deputyâ€TMs information.

This is a crucial strand in the strategy of integrating ICT into teaching and learning and the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resourcesâ€TM wider vision of promoting the use of broadband technologies in local communities around the country.