Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 787: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the steps he will take to provide broadband services to County Donegal communities that can not avail of broadband from existing suppliers and are not covered by the national broadband scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29349/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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When considering the exclusion of certain unserved premises from the National Broadband Scheme (NBS), it is important to clarify that, in designing the NBS, which was approved by the EU Commission, a balance had to be struck between reaching as many unserved areas as possible and minimising the impact of the scheme on businesses already providing broadband services in rural areas.

EU state aid and competition rules govern how states can intervene in areas where there are existing service providers. The nature of broadband networks is such that they provide a coverage footprint over a certain area rather than an individual link to isolated premises. It was essential to guard against the NBS coverage footprint spilling over, to an extent which would be unacceptable from a state aids perspective, into surrounding areas already served by existing service providers.

Accordingly, to try to include individually unserved premises that are located within EDs deemed to be already served within the scope of the NBS would have given rise to an unacceptable level of market distortion and therefore, such areas had to be excluded. More recently, the EU Commission has announced the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP). My Department is currently considering how isolated unserved rural premises, including any unserved premises in Donegal, might be addressed by an appropriate intervention under the EERP and within state aid rules.