Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 112: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools who have not availed of the broadband service being offered by her Department; the reason they have not availed of same; the name, address and roll number of each school which have availed of the service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33505/10]

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

There are 3,848 broadband connections under the Schools Broadband Programme. In addition 78 schools are connected under the joint initiative with the Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources to provide post primary schools with 100Mbp/s and 7 schools are connected under the NCTE Hermes project which links participating primary schools to a central server and network which controls the ICT infrastructure in each school utilising broadband connectivity and thin client architecture.

Forty-six schools are due to be connected shortly and these are made up of new schools, schools where building works may have delayed the install or schools that have moved location and need to be installed in the new location.

Seventy-one schools have declined a connection from the Department, while I do not have a break down of their reasons, I understand that schools may have made their own internet connection arrangements. There is no obligation on schools to avail of a connection provided by the Department and schools are free to source their broadband from the market should they so chose. All of these schools are also free to avail of a connection provided by the Department anytime in the future.

However I would encourage schools to avail of an internet service under the Schools Broadband Programme, as under the Programme connectivity to the internet is routed through a National Broadband Network, which has been developed by HEAnet — the National Education and Research Network provider. HEAnet has established a Network Operations Centre to channel and control the broadband access to schools, and it provides centrally managed services for schools such as security, anti-spam/anti-virus and content filtering. Access to resources such as on-line versions of Britannica and World Book are also only available through the Schools Broadband Network.

A national helpdesk has been established to interface between the network, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the schools, and to provide schools with on-going advice and assistance. This helpdesk is managed by the NCTE. Schools who use a service provider not contracted to the Department do not have access to these services, protections and support. Those schools not on the network are still free to contact the service desk for general advice.

The roll out of the new broadband contracts is nearing completion and as a result the number of schools on satellite is being reduced by over 50%.

The detailed information requested by the Deputy in relation to the name and roll number for each school in the programme will be forwarded shortly.