Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 180: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when he expects high quality broadband availability here to be on par with the service available in leading European countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23280/07]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 181: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he proposes to take steps to bring the quality of broadband service here into line with that in other European jurisdictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23281/07]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 180 and 181 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). Despite these Government initiatives 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.

There were 698,000 broadband subscribers in Ireland at end of quarter two of 2007 according to official figures from ComReg. This is equivalent to 16.48% of the population. At the start of 2005 only 3% of population had broadband and 6.76% of the population at the start of 2006. Ireland has narrowed the gap behind the EU average dramatically. At the end of Q2 06 the EU-25 average was 14% and our rate was 8%. At the end of Q2 07, the EU-25 Average was 18.2% and our rate was at 16.48%. According to the latest OECD Broadband Statistics (end-Dec 2006), the strongest per capita subscriber growth over the year came from Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Ireland. Each country added more than 5.8 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during 2006.

A draft policy paper on next generation broadband is being prepared by my Department, which will review current communications infrastructure policy, and analyse policy options in light of industry developments. This will give guidance in relation to the optimum role for Government in the planning and rollout of broadband.