Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 324: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when it might be expected that high speed broadband facilities will be made available to a school (details supplied) in County Kildare in view of the number of students at the college, the urgency arising from the concern of parents and the need to provide modern high speed telecommunications to the educational sector; if the school may be considered as an optimal site for a pilot of the upcoming phase in the north Kildare region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13542/12]

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 325: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide a breakdown of schools in County Kerry that will benefit from the roll-out of broadband; and when it is expected that broadband will be provided to them. [13576/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 324 and 325 together.

All post-primary schools will have a 100 Mbps broadband connection installed by the end of 2014 in a project jointly funded by the Departments of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and Education and Skills. The selection of schools for connection during 2012 was guided by the view that a geographical rollout will provide the project with the most economically beneficial method to achieve the project objectives. This will allow for the aggregation of backhaul links to provide the optimum solution for the schools selected. It will also allow service providers to provide the local school access connection in a cost-effective manner to deliver multiple schools for similar locations at a reduced cost to the Exchequer. In identifying the most appropriate locations to deliver the first round of increased bandwidth connections, it was decided to concentrate on those locations receiving the lowest average speed under the Department of Education and Skills' existing Schools Broadband Programme. It is expected that the first 200 second level schools in the national rollout will be connected by October 2012. These include all second level schools in counties Cavan, Clare, Donegal, Galway, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo and Westmeath. The question of the scheduling of schools for connection in 2013 and 2014 will be dealt with at a later date. I can confirm again that all second level schools will be provided with 100Mbps broadband by the end of 2014. In the meantime, the Department of Education and Skills continues to operate its Schools Broadband Programme for all primary and post-primary schools.