Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 233: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to provide adequate broadband service for the Leitrim village area of County Leitrim; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16415/11]

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 (i.e. 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 at 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) and the recently-launched Rural Broadband Scheme (RBS) represent such interventions.

EU State Aid and competition rules govern how states can intervene in areas where there are existing service providers operating. Accordingly, Government sponsored interventions are prohibited from providing a service in served areas where to do so would give rise to an unacceptable level of market distortion.

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 are not currently 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 have recently launched a Rural Broadband Scheme. This scheme aims to identify the remaining individual premises in rural Ireland, outside of the NBS areas that are unable to obtain a broadband service and to provide a basic broadband service to those premises, where requested.

Information in relation to acceptance of applications and the process of qualification under the scheme is available on my Department's website (www.dcenr.ie ) or through contacting my Department on lo-call 1850 678100.

In addition, under the NewERA proposals in the Programme for Government, there is a commitment to co-invest with the private sector and commercial Semi State sector to provide Next Generation Broadband to every home and business in the State.

On 13th June, I convened a meeting of the Next Generation Broadband Taskforce (NGBT), which I chair. The Task Force comprises the CEOs of all of the major telecommunications companies currently operating in the Irish market and CEOs of some Internet Service Provider companies. Its purpose is to discuss how best to deliver the optimal policy environment and to identify a roadmap for the speedy delivery of high speed broadband across Ireland. The Taskforce will consider issues such as appropriate targets, investment plans, and the role of Government policy and actions in driving and facilitating investment.

I expect that the NGBT, which will conclude its deliberations before the end of March 2012 will be helpful in terms of identifying the optimal policy position to deliver wider customer access to high-speed broadband.