Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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271. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide a progress report on the roll out of broadband and high speed broadband in the Lucan, Clondalkin, Rathcoole, Saggart, Newcastle and Palmerstown areas of County Dublin, individually; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28640/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Considerable progress has been made in recent years in both the coverage and speeds of national broadband infrastructure, with a multiplicity of commercial operators, providing services over a diverse range of technology platforms.

The Government, through the National Broadband Plan, which I published on 30^th August last year, has recognised that the key imperative now is to ensure high speed broadband availability to all. The Plan commits to high speed broadband availability across the country 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.

Ireland is now therefore moving to a new phase of public and private sector investment in broadband in Ireland which will see significantly improved speeds delivered across the country.

Since the publication of the Plan, investments by the commercial sector are underway in both fixed line and wireless high speed broadband services, particularly in urban and semi-urban areas. There is evidence that industry is investing beyond the targets to which they committed in the Plan.

Some of the key developments in the short and medium term are as follows:

- Eircom launched its next generation broadband services on 16^th May last, with speeds of up to 70Mbps, immediately available to over 300,000 premises. By the end of this year, eircom aims to reach more than 600,000 homes and businesses. It has a target to pass 1.2m premises by June 2015.

- UPC is continuing with its investment in the cable network, which should see 750,000 homes able to access services at data speeds of at least 150 Mbps by 2015.

- Other fixed operators also continue to invest in Local Loop Unbundling (LLU). BT Ireland now supplies broadband access to both Vodafone and Sky Ireland, and along with other operators, is also investing in fixed infrastructure.

- Mobile wireless operators are making plans for the rollout of 4G services later this year. The rollout of 4G will facilitate significantly increased mobile broadband speeds.

- ESB is currently considering the prospect of utilising its distribution network to rollout fibre broadband services.

In tandem with these commercial developments, intensive work is underway in my Department to progress a State-led investment to secure the countrywide introduction of next generation broadband access.

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 the areas of the country to be targeted in the State-led investment under the Government's National Broadband Plan to ensure the provision of high speed broadband services where the commercial market will not deliver. 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.

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, including all those situated in the areas of Lucan, Clondalkin, Rathcoole, Saggart, Newcastle and Palmerstown, can participate fully in a digitally enabled society. The Deputy may wish to contact commercial operators directly with a view to establishing what commercial services are available or planned in these areas, in the first instance.