Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the steps he is taking to ensure that all enterprises will have access to fibre based broadband connectivity. [41605/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Government’s National Broadband Plan, which I published in August, aims to radically change the broadband landscape in Ireland by ensuring that high speed services of at least 30 megabits per second are available to all enterprises and homes well in advance of the target date of 2020 set by the EU Commission in the EU “Digital Agenda for Europe”. The 30 megabits speed is a minimum target, I expect that significantly higher speeds will be available to as many enterprises and homes as possible.

The National Broadband Plan for Ireland commits to high speed broadband availability across the country – specifically: 70–100 megabits per second will be available from the commercial market operators to more than half of the population by 2015; at least 40 megabits per second and in many cases faster speeds, to at least a further 20% and potentially as much as 35% of the population during the lifetime of the Government; and a minimum of 30 megabits per second for every remaining home and business in the country, also during the lifetime of the Government.

The provision of electronic communications services, which includes the provision of high speed broadband services, operates within a fully liberalised EU internal market. Intervention by any Government in that market must comply with EU competition law and its rules on State Aids in particular.

During the preparation of the National Broadband Plan, the commercial market operators indicated that they expect to provide 70Mbps to 100Mbps services to 50% of the population by 2015. The areas to be provided with those services will be determined by the commercial market operators and no issue of State Aid arises.

A qualifying requirement of EU State Aids’ rules generally is that the aid does not displace or distort public or private commercial investment in that product market at the quality level required.

In the case of state aid for broadband products and services, any State Aid must comply with EU Commission guidelines specific to State Aid investment in broadband infrastructure.

One of the first steps in delivering on the 30Mbps and 40Mbps commitments will be the completion of a formal national mapping exercise to determine the exact position in relation to commercial service providers’ existing and planned broadband services throughout the country, as required by the sectoral state aids guidelines. Preparatory work has commenced within my Department on the mapping exercise.

An additional requirement of the guidelines is that any market intervention is technology neutral. The National Broadband Plan cannot therefore dictate the technological solution which will be used in a future public procurement process to identify a network provider or providers.

The outcome of the mapping exercise is an essential element in any State Aids notification and will also inform the design of the procurement process. The responses received from the commercial market in the procurement process will determine the technological solution or solutions to be used.