Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 554: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason it appears the communications regulatory system throughout Europe seems to have achieved a higher quality and availability of communications services than those available here; if he has had discussions with his EU counterparts on this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39576/08]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The Irish telecommunications market is competitive and healthy. This is evident from ComReg's latest quarterly report for end June 2008. This confirms the continuing growth in broadband with 1,055,000 subscribers, an increase of 6.4% since Quarter 1 2008. The household broadband penetration rate at present is 57% which is roughly the same as in the UK. In Ireland approximately 21% of broadband is delivered over mobile (with 222,300 subscribers) this is one of the highest rates within the EU. Increasingly, offers of higher speeds are being made available by service providers. Mobile phone penetration stands at 120% while total mobile subscriptions increased by 55,000 in Quarter 2 2008. Full details of the latest progress in the Irish telecommunications market are in ComReg's Irish Communications Market: Key Data Report — Q2 2008 available on www.comreg.ie.

The widespread provision of telecommunications services continues to be a major priority for the Government. 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 providers. Where markets failure has occurred in the provision of electronic communications the Government has intervened such as in the case of the provision of broadband infrastructure in the regions and the proposed National Broad Scheme.

My Department plays an active role in negotiations on telecommunication matters at EU level and I will continue to engage with the Council of Ministers in seeking to ensure that the regulatory framework is designed to further improve the quality and availability of telecommunications services.