Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 405: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number and percentage of schools who have broadband access at primary and at secondary level; the investment cost to date; and the cost in recurrent support costs falling on his Department and on schools. [19470/08]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 406: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number and percentage of schools who are participating in the wide area network for schools supported by the National Centre for Technology in Education at primary and at secondary level; the investment cost to date; and the cost in recurrent support costs falling on his Department and on schools. [19471/08]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 407: To ask the Minister for Education and Science his targets for 2008 and 2009 for schools accessing broadband and for schools connecting to his Department's supported network; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19472/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 405, 406 and 407 together.

My Department is providing broadband connectivity to recognised primary and post-primary schools under the Schools Broadband Access Programme. This programme is being undertaken in partnership with industry in the context of a Government — IBEC/TIF (Telecommunications and Internet Federation) Agreement to provide local broadband connectivity to schools. The Programme has three elements — local connectivity to schools, a national broadband network and a broadband support service desk. Schools connectivity is being routed to the Internet through a national broadband network, which is supported by HEAnet and provides centrally managed services for schools such as security, anti-spam/ anti-virus and content filtering. The broadband support service desk has been established to interface between the network, the local broadband service Access Providers and schools. It is managed by the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE).

The total costs of the Programme for the first three years, including the initial set-up costs, are some €30m. Schools are not required to meet the costs of their broadband connectivity under the Programme. The Agreement provides for the establishment of a three year €18m joint Government-IBEC/TIF Fund, with industry contributing €5m per annum and the Government contributing €1m per annum. To date the receipts to the Fund comprise the State's contributions of €3m and €8.03m from IBEC/TIF contributing members. The costs associated with the broadband network, the help-desk and the routers in schools are met by my Department. In addition, there are staffing costs in the NCTE and my Department associated with the operation and management of the Programme, which are met from the overall provision for each organisation.

A competitive, technology neutral, central procurement process for the provision of local connectivity for schools was undertaken based on a tiered bandwidth provision, ranging from 0.5 Megabits per second (Mbps) in the case of small primary schools up to 2 Mbps for larger post-primary schools. Contracts were finalised in 2005 with six Service Providers for the provision of local access connectivity to 3,925 schools and with a further Provider for the installation of a broadband router at school level where appropriate. The 3,925 initial individual school awards involved a range of technologies. Roll-out commenced in June 2005. The installation process has two stages starting with the local broadband connectivity installation followed by the installation of a high-speed router and circuit and acceptance testing.

The total number of schools involved in the Programme has been adjusted in the meantime to reflect a number of school openings, closures and amalgamations and stands currently at 3,936. As of 24th April, 2008, 3,907 (99%) have had their local connectivity installed and of these 3,904 have had their router capability installed and tested. The number and percentage of schools that have had their local connectivity installed is 3,211 (99%) at primary level and 696 (99%) at post-primary level. There are 29 schools that have yet to be connected to the Network. Of these 15 schools have been awarded service providers and their installation is being progressed. 2 schools were not bid for by any service provider, 8 schools have refused the service on the basis that their existing broadband service is preferred or because of concerns regarding the particular service offered and 4 schools have outstanding issues in relation to building works that have delayed the installation.

Of the 3,907 local connectivity installations, 27% have fixed line services, 26% have wireless services and 47% have satellite services. Having regard to the usage levels observed by HEAnet, my Department has procured additional bandwidth from its two satellite providers to improve the broadband connection speeds for schools on this portion of the Schools Broadband Network. The situation continues to be monitored closely. Another development has been that increased bandwidths have been provided to some schools with fixed line services as a consequence of improvements in the wholesale broadband market. Over 650 schools are now receiving bandwidths of 3Mbps or higher. In addition, my Department has migrated schools to superior alternative technology, where feasible. A further 72 schools have had broadband access provided under the Hermes and Advanced Deployment programmes. Where feasible, these schools have been connected to the national broadband network and to date, 66 of these schools have been connected.

My Department will shortly issue a Request for Tenders for the next round of service. The priority for the new procurement process will be to ensure that the broadband services to schools keep in line with national infrastructure improvements. The RFT will seek tenders which at least maintain the existing service (in terms of speed and reliability) that schools currently receive. Having regard to the general developments in broadband availability nationally, improved service offerings are expected to be received under the new tender process.