Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 446: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he has examined and had discussions with his Cabinet colleagues regarding the recently published Forfás report on broadband which details the extent of broadband connection in rural Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8290/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The Forfas report acknowledges that urbanisation and population density are crucial determinants of the economic case for investing in broadband infrastructure and that the case for such investment is likely to be more attractive in countries with a high proportion of people living in urban areas and high population density. The report notes that by contrast, Ireland has a high proportion of people living in rural areas.

This reality is reflected in the range of broadband interventions undertaken by the Government to provide broadband service to those parts of the country where operators have been unable to do so on a commercial basis. Under the most recent initiative my Department entered into a contract with "3", a Hutchison Whampoa company, for the delivery of the National Broadband Scheme (NBS) in late December 2008. Since then, 3 has progressed its network rollout and NBS broadband services are now available in almost half of the 1,028 designated Electoral Divisions (ED) to be covered under the Scheme. Under the NBS contract, all EDs in the NBS Coverage Area are required to have broadband connectivity by end September 2010.

It is accepted that even after the full roll-out of the NBS there will still be a small percentage of premises outside of the Electoral Divisions covered by the scheme that will not be capable of receiving broadband services. This is primarily due to technical and other reasons (suitability of a telephone line, distance from an enabled exchange, no line of sight etc.).

The European Commission has set aside a portion of the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) funding for rural broadband initiatives. In this context, my Department is currently considering the detailed design and implementation of a scheme which would utilise these funds to address the issue of broadband availability to unserved rural premises outside of the NBS areas.