Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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515. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will introduce as a matter of priority a high speed broadband pilot scheme initiative to cover the triangle in the Iveragh Peninsula, County Kerry, that is, Caherciveen to Waterville to Portmagee, in view of the fact that this area is poorly serviced and it is having a negative impact on job creation in this part of the county as it is hindering small firms from starting up and existing businesses from expanding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27007/13]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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516. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the extent to which his Department has identified specific areas throughout the country, currently experiencing poor quality or total lack of access to any level of broadband; if he will put in place any particular provisions to meet such requirements in the short and medium term having particular regard to the increased public dependency on such high quality services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27335/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 515 and 516 together.

Ireland's telecommunications market has been fully liberalised since 1999 in accordance with the requirements of binding EU Directives. Under EU State Aid rules, the State can only intervene to ensure access to broadband services in areas where the competitive market has failed to deliver such services. The National Broadband Scheme (NBS) and the Rural Broadband Scheme are examples of two such interventions. Under the NBS, basic broadband services are available in 1,028 Electoral Divisions throughout the country. With more specific reference to the areas of County Kerry mentioned above, NBS services are available in 4 of the 6 relevant Electoral Divisions, namely St. Finan's, Ballinskelligs, Teeranearagh and Emlagh.

With basic broadband services widely available across Ireland, the focus is now on accelerating the roll out of high speed services as outlined in the Government's National Broadband Plan, which I published in August last. It aims to radically change the broadband landscape in Ireland by ensuring that high speed services of 30Mbps are available to all of our citizens and businesses, well in advance of the EU's target date of 2020, and that significantly higher speeds are available to as many homes and businesses as possible.

In order to progress the State-led investment, a full procurement process must be designed and EU State Aids approval must be obtained. My Department will shortly embark on a formal mapping exercise to identify those areas where State intervention will be required to enable the delivery of high speed broadband services over the coming years in line with the commitments set out in the Plan. This exercise will inform an EU State Aids application in respect of the State-led intervention and is a necessary prerequisite for State Aids approval.

In devising any State intervention to deliver high speed services to areas of the country where such services are not commercially viable and will not be provided by the market, my Department will be adopting a technology neutral approach, as required under EU law. In doing so, it is of key importance that the solution is future proofed, scalable and capable of taking advantage of technological advances so as to meet the ever-increasing bandwidth requirements of citizens and businesses. Intensive technical, financial and legal preparations including stakeholder engagement will be ongoing throughout 2013 with a view to the launch of a procurement process in 2014.

Through the implementation of the National Broadband Plan, we are committed to increasing the availability of next generation speeds significantly, with a view to ensuring that all citizens and businesses, wherever they are located, have a broadband connection which meets their needs to interact effectively with society and business in the digital environment.