Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 269: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when he expects broadband quality, speed and availability here to be comparable to the best in Europe; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43677/09]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 273: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the steps he has taken or intends to take, directly or in association with the regulator, to address areas of infrastructural deficiency in the communications sector here; the degree to which wire, cable and wireless systems will be incorporated in such a programme with a view to ensuring state of the art quality and availability prevails; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43681/09]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 274: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the extent to which he has given consideration to directly or in consultation with the regulator bringing about a dramatic improvement in the standard and quality of the telecommunications sector as a means of improving competitiveness, attracting foreign investment and encouraging economic recovery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43682/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 269, 273 and 274 together.

Government policy pertaining to the electronic communications market in Ireland including the provision of broadband services and the underlying telecommunications infrastructure is set out in "Next Generation Broadband – Gateway to a Knowledge Ireland", which I published in June 2009.

The policy paper was developed in accordance with various key principles, which are crucial to the development of the market including (i) competition, at platform and service levels, which drives innovation and investment (ii) investment certainty for service providers considering investing in network infrastructure, (iii) investment intervention by Government only to bridge any digital divide (e.g. the Metropolitan Area Networks Programme, the Schools Broadband Programme, and most recently, the National Broadband Scheme) and (iv) appropriate regulation. The policy paper sets out the Government's position that investment in telecommunications services including alternative and emerging infrastructure is a matter for participating service providers, facilitated where appropriate and possible, by Government, in order to deliver universal broadband access by the end of 2010 and at speeds equal to or in excess of comparable EU regions by 2012.

The existing policy has facilitated significant progress in recent years in broadband roll out and broadband speeds over existing and emerging telecommunications infrastructure and my focus will be on continuing the implementation of this policy. The relevant 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 infrastructure and services, by the competing telecommunications service providers. The statutory responsibility for the regulation of the electronic communications sector is the responsibility of ComReg in accordance with the requirements of the Communications Regulation Act 2002 and the Regulations, which transpose the EU Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications.