Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 273: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason a person (details supplied) in County Galway has either no broadband or a very poor standard of broadband [42145/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Ireland's telecommunications market is fully liberalised and 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.

The regulation of telecommunications service providers, including regulatory issues surrounding the provision of broadband, is the responsibility of the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), in accordance with its functions under the Communications Regulation Act 2002, as amended, and the EU Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications. 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 Galway.

While Government and the private sector have invested in broadband in the last number of years, 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.