David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 253: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he has considered or will consider including an area (details supplied) in County Cork under the national broadband scheme or if his attention has been drawn to plans to make this area broadband-enabled; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7632/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The provision of broadband services is, in the first instance, a matter for private sector service providers operating in Ireland's fully liberalised telecommunications market. Broadband services are provided by private service providers over various platforms including DSL (over telephone lines), fixed wireless, mobile, cable, fibre and satellite. Details of broadband services available in each county can be found on ComReg's website, www.callcosts.ie. 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. Prior to launching the NBS, my Department carried out a detailed mapping exercise to determine which areas would be included and which, by virtue of already being served by a commercial operator, were to be excluded. That exercise found that the area of Ballynoe was already covered and hence was excluded from the scheme.

It continues to be a priority of the Government that there will be broadband coverage across the entire country. I am aware that there continues to be a small percentage of premises throughout the country that will not be capable of receiving broadband services. This is primarily due to technical and other reasons, such as 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 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 in the coming weeks. This scheme will aim to provide a basic broadband service to individual unserved rural premises outside of the NBS areas.