Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the lack of broadband at a school (details supplied) in County Meath; the way an Internet service provider is contracted to provide broadband through the National Centre for Technology Education, NCTE; if the NCTE may engage with a local provider of broadband to provide a service for this school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8099/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I am aware of the issue in relation to the broadband connection at Culmullen National School. Under my Department's Schools Broadband Programme connectivity to the internet is routed through a National Broadband Network, developed by HEAnet - the National Education and Research Network provider. HEAnet provides the broadband access to schools together with centrally managed services 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 broadband support service desk has been established to interface between the network, the local broadband service Access Providers and schools. It is managed by the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE).

My Department with the assistance of the NCTE and HEAnet has secured broadband services on behalf of schools through a public procurement process that is open, objective and transparent in line in line with EU Treaty principles and Directives on public procurement. The Directives impose legal obligations on public bodies in regard to advertising and the use of objective tendering procedures for contracts above certain value thresholds. In line with public procurement regulations, a public procurement competition for provision of broadband connections to all schools (Phase II of the Schools Broadband Programme) was carried out by the Department in 2009. Contracts under the new agreement were signed in September 2009. The contracts are in place until end June 2011 with an option to extend for one year. My Department is currently working on the tender process for the next phase of the Schools Broadband Programme.

Following from the tendering process for phase 2, a contract was awarded to Digiweb for the provision of satellite broadband to this school as this was the only technically viable option at the time. My Department subsequently tried unsuccessfully to upgrade the service. The satellite broadband has since been disconnected. Since the commencement of the roll-out of phase 2 in 2009 of the Schools Broadband Programme there has been over a 50% increase in bandwidth capacity, this is due to improved bandwidth speeds being made available to schools and the substantial reduction in the number of schools who are connected via satellite. Schools are only offered satellite connections where no alternative was offered during the procurement process. Should a better solution become available from the contractors over the lifetime of the contracts, schools may be migrated to the new solution.

My Department has obligations under public procurement regulations and cannot engage with the local provider for provision of broadband to this school. If my Department allowed this private connection to be connected to the schools broadband network it could be seen as conferring an unfair advantage on this company over other broadband suppliers. I wish to inform the Deputy that if the school chose to connect privately with the local provider then they would have to pay for this from its own resources and would not be connected to the Schools Broadband Network.

The NCTE has been in contact with the school with a view to reconnecting the satellite connection which the school has declined. My Department is currently investigating if a fixed line (DSL) service can now be installed and is awaiting a response from the contractor. Once this response has been received, the school will be informed of the outcome.