Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 599: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason Rockcorry village and district, County Monaghan has not been included in the national broadband scheme which has been rolled out through a company (details supplied); if his attention has been drawn to the fact that there in no coverage in this area through other mobile broadband systems; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5082/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Broadband services are provided by private service providers over various platforms including DSL (i.e over telephone lines), fixed wireless, mobile, cable, satellite and fibre.

I understand that broadband is available in the general area of Rockcorry village, County Monaghan, from wireless service providers and therefore this area will not be addressed by 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. Accordingly, the NBS is prohibited from providing a service in served areas where to do so would give rise to an unacceptable level of market distortion.

More recently, the EU Commission has announced the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) under which some funding has been set aside for rural broadband initiatives. My Department is currently considering the detailed design and implementation of a scheme which would address the issue of unserved rural premises outside of the NBS areas, including any unserved premises in County Monaghan.

It is hoped to commence the scheme this year with the identification of premises not capable of receiving broadband. State Aid approval has been granted by the European Commission as part of the overall process of securing the necessary approvals and funding for the scheme.