Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 813: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, further to Parliamentary Question No. 992 of 3 November 2009, if the scheme has been put in place whereby the European economic recovery programme will be used to provide broadband access in rural areas; and if not, the timeline decided for commencement of the scheme. [15033/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The European Commission has set aside a portion of the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) funding for rural broadband initiatives through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). This funding is being administered by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, with my Department undertaking the design and implementation of a scheme which would use this funding to address the issue of basic broadband availability to un-served rural premises outside of the areas covered by the National Broadband Scheme.

A total of €13.413m from the EAFRD is available to the rural broadband initiative. This allocation, being 75% of the total, would mean a total available funding of €17.884m for the initiative. 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. With regard to a proposed date for launch, taking account of the time necessary to design the scheme and to put the appropriate arrangements in place, I hope to be in a position to launch the first part of the scheme (identifying and verifying the applicants) in September this year. At that time I would also expect that an EU Procurement Process will be under way to identify a Service Provider for the Scheme. On an indicative basis, I expect the Service Provider to be appointed and roll-out to start around mid-2011 and the scheme to be completed by the end of 2012.

As the scheme is only at design phase, there is no application process at this stage. Information relating to acceptance of applications and the process of qualification under the scheme will be made available in due course when the scheme is launched.