Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 132: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the OECD figures that ranks Ireland 20th out of a table of 30 OECD nations for households with broadband access in 2008; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3429/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The OECD report is the most recent in a series of periodic reports on electronic communications markets. The broadband market is a fast moving and dynamic one; this applies to all OECD countries. On this basis annual comparisons of broadband metrics between different countries cannot capture the full extent of market developments. For example, the OECD report is a snapshot of the position as at June 2009 and excludes improved penetration achieved using mobile technologies in calculating the ratings. Ireland has over 400,000 mobile broadband subscribers, an increase of 53.3% over the last year. Mobile broadband is widely used in countries with large, widely dispersed, rural populations like Ireland. If mobile broadband was included Ireland's position in the OECD table would be significantly better. It is noteworthy that Ireland continued to be one of the leading countries in terms of year on year broadband growth in the OECD, adding 2.68 subscribers (per 100 of population) while the OECD average stood at 1.72 subscribers. Ireland's broadband penetration increased to 30.5% in Q3/2009 (with mobile included) as compared with 25.9% in Q3 2008.

As regards other international comparator reports, ComReg, in its latest Quarterly Report, highlighted Ireland, when compared with the EU27, had a fixed broadband penetration of 21.2% and a mobile broadband penetration rate of 8.3% as of Q2'09. Ireland's fixed penetration rate is below the EU27 average of 23.9% but Ireland's mobile broadband penetration rate is well above the EU27 average of 4.2%. If fixed and mobile broadband penetration rates are combined, Ireland ranks 11th out of the EU27 countries (note: no mobile broadband figure was represented for Finland); 14th among fixed broadband penetration rates only and 4th among mobile broadband penetration rates only.