Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Question 151: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will consider a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27790/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Currently, there is no EU-wide universal service obligation for broadband, apart from a guarantee of "functional broadband connectivity", which equates to a dial-up service. The EU Commission has recently embarked on a process aimed at looking at whether this should be extended to include universal access to broadband and Ireland will be participating fully in any discussions on such proposals.

In Ireland we are achieving full access to broadband through a combination of market forces and targeted Government intervention.

The provision of broadband services here 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. In cases of market failure the Government will intervene, where it is appropriate and possible to do so. The Group Broadband Scheme, National Broadband Scheme (NBS) and Rural Broadband Scheme are all examples of where Government has intervened to ensure broadband availability in areas, particularly rural ones, where commercial investors have failed to provide services.

The delivery of these schemes, along with private sector investment has resulted in all parts of Ireland now having broadband available, some three years ahead of the target date of 2013 set by the EU Commission in its "Digital Agenda".

Accordingly, between the significant private and public sector investments over recent years all areas of the country now have access to at least a basic broadband service. In addition to the NBS, the Rural Broadband Scheme, which recently closed for applications, aims to identify the remaining individual premises in rural Ireland, outside the NBS areas that are unable to obtain a broadband service and to provide a basic broadband to those premises, where requested.

The challenge now is to accelerate the delivery of next generation broadband. The Next Generation Broadband Taskforce (NGBT), which I chair, aims to assist in developing a roadmap for the delivery of such services across Ireland. The Taskforce, and four Working Groups reporting to it, are considering issues such as appropriate targets, private sector investment plans, and the role of Government in driving and facilitating investment. The Taskforce met recently and will meet again in December. In the interim, the four working groups will continue their work. I expect that the Taskforce will help to identify the optimal policy to deliver wider customer access to high-speed broadband generally and thereby assist in delivering on the commitment in the Programme for Government.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 152: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the level of uptake in the rural broadband scheme in County Waterford; if he will supply a breakdown of broadband households in County Waterford, in numbers, in tabular form that have fibre optic, wireless, dongles, dial up and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27880/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Almost 5,000 applications have been received under the Rural Broadband Scheme and work is continuing on the processing of approximately 1,200 of these applications where address details need to be clarified. A total of 95 applications has been received from County Waterford – this number is provisional and may change once all addresses have been clarified.

My Department does not collect or possess the type of statistical data referred to in the Deputy's Question. However, ComReg, in its role as regulator and the promoter of competition in the Irish market, does publish quarterly data on a national level, which provides a wide range of information in relation to broadband penetration by technology platform. This statistical information on the Irish electronic communications market and benchmark data from other countries is collected and analysed by ComReg's Trend Unit and is available on its website www.comstat.ie.