James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 124: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason an area (details supplied) in County Longford does not have total broadband coverage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7913/11]

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 the ComReg website, www.callcosts.ie. The Government will intervene in cases of market failure 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 existing service providers are 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. The mapping exercise undertaken by my Department at the time of designing the NBS found that broadband services were available in the area referred to in the Deputy's question and consequently the locality was excluded from the scheme. I am pleased to say that under the NBS, broadband is now available in all Electoral Divisions in the NBS Coverage Area.

It continues to be a priority of the Government that there will be broadband coverage across the entire country. I am aware that a small percentage of premises throughout the country continues to be incapable 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 and there being no line of sight. 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 shortly. This scheme will aim to provide a basic broadband service to individual unserved rural premises outside 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.