Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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27. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the progress made by his Department in implementing the national digital strategy; if he is satisfied with the progress made to date with national broadband scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4252/14]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Government's National Digital Strategy was published in July 2013. Phase 1 of the Strategy focuses on actions in 3 key areas – citizen engagement, small business, and digital in learning and significant progress is being made in implementing actions in these areas:

- The Government provided funding of €5m this year for the implementation of an Online Trading Voucher Scheme for small businesses and this scheme is being piloted in the Dublin area at present involving 25 companies. A second Dublin based pilot, comprising a further 25 companies, will start in February followed by a full national roll out of this scheme during 2014.

- Digital training for citizens is ongoing. The individual grants available as part of the BenefIT 4 scheme were announced in July last and training began in early Autumn. Training is currently available at over 570 locations nationwide and it is expected this will grow to about 700 locations.

- My Department in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills are in the process of rolling out high speed broadband to post-primary schools and have commenced the roll out of phase III of the 100Mbps schools project. This will cover 272 schools in 9 counties: Carlow, Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, Wicklow and Wexford. This will complete the national rollout to some 516 post-primary schools. The final 272 schools will have a 100Mbps connection by the beginning of the new academic year in September 2014. In addition, my Department has commissioned the Economic and Social Research Institute to research the learning outcomes as a consequence of enhanced broadband connectivity.

- A suite of “Switch On” workshops will target schools to promote the use of digital and to assist them to overcome barriers to use of high-speed broadband. These workshops are under development and are targeted to be rolled out in March

- In December 2012, Lord David Puttnam was appointed as Ireland’s first Digital Champion. In addition to his engagements with the European Commission and other Digital Champions, he is undertaking a number of strategic engagements with key stakeholders on the National Digital Strategy throughout 2014.

Macro-economic research on the value of digital to the economy of Ireland was published as part of the National Digital Strategy. It indicated that digital contributed 4.4% to Ireland’s GDP in 2012 and is supporting up to 95,000 jobs. The digital part of the economy in Ireland is growing at 16% per year.

In tandem with measures to stimulate uptake and use of technology in society, the Government's National Broadband Plan, which I published in August 2012, aims to radically change the broadband landscape in Ireland by ensuring that high speed broadband is available to all citizens and businesses. This will be achieved by providing:

- a policy and regulatory framework that assists in accelerating and incentivising commercial investment, and

- a State-led investment for areas where it is not commercial for the market to invest.

Since the publication of the Plan, investments by the commercial sector are underway and in some instances have been accelerated in both fixed line and wireless high speed broadband services. In the fixed line segment of the market, eircom has announced plans to pass 1.4m premises with its next generation broadband service, with speeds of up to 100Mbps, while UPC has increased its entry level and maximum speeds to 120Mbps and 200Mbps respectively. Mobile operators have also made announcements regarding network upgrades and are rolling out enhanced product offerings. Last week, I introduced legislation in the Dáil, to allow the ESB to utilise its electricity network to install a new high speed broadband communications network.

These developments have been facilitated through the implementation of measures in the National Broadband Plan, including the conclusion of ComReg's multiband spectrum auction, and the new regulatory regime for fixed line Next Generation Access and service bundles. Both of these measures are designed to incentivise the rollout of services by operators.

In tandem with these 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 for areas where it is not commercial for the market to invest, a full procurement process must be designed and EU State Aids approval must be obtained. My Department is engaged in a comprehensive mapping exercise of the current and anticipated investment by the commercial sector over the coming years, the results of which will inform the areas that need to be targeted in the State-led investment as envisaged in the National Broadband Plan.

Intensive technical, financial and legal preparations, including stakeholder engagement, are ongoing. The procurement process for the approved intervention will be carried out in accordance with EU and Irish procurement rules and it is expected that it will be launched in 2014.

Through the implementation of the National Broadband Plan, I am committed to ensuring that all parts of Ireland have access to high speed broadband, with a view to ensuring that all citizens and businesses can participate fully in, and maximise the benefits of, a digitally enabled economy and society.