Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 259: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will consider introducing a second phase of the national broadband scheme as a matter of urgency to ensure that all remaining areas in Donegal receive mobile Internet broadband coverage and that both ERNACT and ISD in Donegal County Council have a recognised input into the project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41852/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The provision of telecommunications services, including broadband services, is a matter for private sector service providers operating in a liberalised market regulated by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). Broadband services are provided by private service providers over various platforms including DSL (i.e. over telephone lines), fixed wireless, mobile, cable, fibre and satellite. ComReg's website www.callcosts.ie provides detailed information on the various private sector telecommunications products and services available on a county by county basis, including County Donegal.

In cases of market failure the Government will intervene, where it is appropriate and possible to do so. The National Broadband Scheme (NBS) represents such an intervention.

EU State Aid and competition rules govern how states can intervene in areas where there are existing service providers operating. 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.

In determining the Electoral Divisions ("ED") to be covered by the NBS, my Department conducted a detailed mapping exercise in 2008 of the levels of broadband coverage existing throughout the country at that time. The coverage analysis determined that of the 149 EDs within County Donegal, 52 were eligible for inclusion in the NBS on the basis of insufficient broadband coverage. The remaining EDs in County Donegal were excluded from the Scheme because it was found that a number of broadband suppliers were already active in these areas.

The rollout of the provision of broadband services under the NBS advanced incrementally over a 22 month period and NBS services are now available throughout the NBS coverage area.

However, despite Government and private investment in broadband, I am aware that there continues to be a small number of individual premises throughout the country that are not 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 Programme (EERP) funding for rural broadband initiatives. Using this funding, which will be augmented by an Exchequer contribution, I intend to formally launch a Rural Broadband Scheme shortly. This scheme will aim to provide a basic broadband service to individual un-served rural premises outside of the NBS areas.

Information in relation to acceptance of applications and the process of qualification under the scheme will be made available in due course when the scheme is launched.

Johnny Brady (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 260: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources given that significant information and other services is provided via internet sites to both the public and as well as to staff, the processes, standards or recommendations in place to ensure that the design, development and maintenance of all such sites consistently complies with legislative requirements, technical standards and industry best practice in terms of data protection, security, accessibility and usability [41994/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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I assume that this Question applies to information provided over the internet by my Department. The Department has developed and maintain a number of applications that support internal business and provide information to the wider community through Internet sites.

All of these applications were built using standards and practices developed within the Information Systems Division of my Department, which have incorporated best practice as it has developed.

These standards reflect international best practice including reference to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the use of multi layered architectures and encryption where appropriate to secure personal information. No application is deployed until it has been subjected to a penetration test by an independent security specialist.

The accessibility and usability of the applications is ensured by the use of a Common Interface Design Framework (CIDF) developed by my Department to standardise design and development of user interfaces.

Johnny Brady (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 261: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources given that the Programme for Government challenges us to build a productive, smart economy in order to create new jobs, many of which will be building the communications infrastructure and internet of tomorrow, the way he plans to develop and support the increasing focus on quality and standards that is needed to compete internationally against low-cost competitors [41997/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Government policy pertaining to the electronic communications market in Ireland is set out in "Next Generation Broadband – Gateway to a Knowledge Ireland", which I published in June 2009. The policy paper was developed in accordance with various key principles, which are crucial to the development of the market including (i) competition, at platform and service levels, which drives innovation and investment (ii) investment certainty for service providers considering investing in network infrastructure, (iii) investment intervention by Government to bridge any digital divide in cases of market failure and to meet certain of the State's own communication needs, and (iv) appropriate regulation. The policy paper sets out the Government's position that investment in broadband infrastructure is primarily a matter for the private sector, facilitated, where appropriate and possible, by Government.

The policy has facilitated significant progress in broadband roll out and increasing broadband speeds over recent years. At the end of March 2007, for example, the number of broadband connections, at 600,000 approximately, first exceeded narrowband connections. At end June 2010, by comparison, Ireland had in the region of 1.48 million broadband subscriptions, narrowband connections had reduced to less than 5% of all Internet connections and of the homes with broadband access, 77.8% of them are using broadband speeds between 2mbps and 10mbps. This progress was achieved by a combination of competitive forces in the open market and Government and ERDF funded schemes such as the Metropolitan Areas Networks programme and the National Broadband Scheme. The latter schemes are designed to intervene where market failure has been identified. This approach is consistent with the EU Commission's 'Community Guidelines on State Aid rules for broadband networks' (2009/C 235/04), which limit the circumstances in which the State can intervene in the broadband market.

I signalled last month that I have commenced the establishment of a Next Generation Broadband Taskforce, comprising industry, Government and ComReg, to consider how best to facilitate the roll out of next generation broadband in Ireland without compromising the competitive market principles and applicable EU rules.