Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 111: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the call from an association (details supplied) for a one stop shop for the communications market here; the position regarding his commitment to establish a one stop shop to provide service providers with open access to existing ducting infrastructure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18781/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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In July 2008 I published a consultation paper on Next Generation Broadband. One of the proposals in this paper is to establish a one-stop-shop to provide electronic communications service providers with flexible and open access to existing and future State ducting infrastructure to facilitate the provision of backhaul. The proposal for a one-stop-shop received a largely positive response in the consultation process.

My officials have conducted work on identifying the supply of relevant State-owned infrastructure and are working with the relevant State agencies, mainly in the energy and transport sectors to examine how best their assets can be accessed and utilised.

Telecoms operators and service providers are the potential customers of a one-stop-shop and my Department is now engaging with them on how best to progress the one-stop-shop initiative.

A number of issues, relating to the agencies and to the operators and service providers, have been identified including commercial and legal issues, and operational issues such as ensuring safety when accessing infrastructure assets. These are complex matters that need careful consideration as we develop an appropriate model for the one-stop-shop. My Department and the agencies are committed to working out how best such issues can be addressed and ensuring that the ducting assets that are in State ownership are used to the greatest possible extent in our evolving Next Generation Broadband network.