James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 27: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when 100% broadband penetration will be achieved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23126/07]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 32: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to review the national broadband scheme to include areas that to date can only access expensive and slow broadband with no competition in the same area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23087/07]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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I propose to take questions 27 and 32 together.

The provision of telecommunications services, including broadband, is a matter for the private sector. Broadband service providers operate in a fully liberalised market, regulated, where appropriate, by the independent Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg.

The role of the Government is to formulate regulatory and infrastructure policies to facilitate the provision of high quality telecommunications services, by competing private sector service providers.

The widespread provision of broadband services continues to be a priority for the Government. In that regard my Department has undertaken initiatives to address the gaps in broadband coverage. These include providing grant-aid under the recently concluded Group Broadband Scheme and investment in Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs).

There are still some parts of the country where the private sector will be unable to justify the commercial provision of broadband services. Accordingly, the procurement process for a National Broadband Scheme (NBS) is under way. The NBS will provide broadband services to areas that are currently unserved and will ensure that all reasonable requests for broadband in unserved areas are met.

The first phase of the procurement process, the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) phase, is now complete and four candidates have pre-qualified. As my Department indicated on 2 September 2007, the four candidates are, in alphabetical order, BT Communications Ireland Ltd Consortium, eircom Ltd, Hutchinson 3G Ireland Ltd and IFA/Motorola Consortium. The next phase of the procurement process involves inviting candidates to participate in a competitive dialogue process. My Department is anticipating that the award of the NBS contract will be Quarter 2 of 2008, with rollout of the services due to begin as soon as possible thereafter. This timeline is subject to negotiations with candidates during the competitive dialogue phase of the procurement process.

EU State Aid regulations do not allow for State intervention into areas that are already served by a provider. However, any area that is only served by Satellite broadband will be covered by the NBS.