Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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1649. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if measures will be put in place to safeguard against negative consequences, such as a commercial operator altering its plans, arising from EU state aid rules concerning broadband services which prevent the State from intervening in an area in which a commercial operator has expressed an interest in the previous three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34222/14]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The State will only intervene in the telecommunications market in cases of clear market failure. Any State intervention requires the prior approval of the European Commission (DG Competition) to ensure that such investment does not distort competition and displace commercial investment.

In the case of the proposed intervention under the National Broadband Plan, the clear intention of Government is to intervene to ensure the provision of Next Generation Broadband services to those areas of the country where it can be objectively demonstrated that there is an absence of current and/or planned commercial investment to deploy such services.

The State is precluded, therefore, from intervening in an area with either current or a verified planned roll-out of next generation services.

I expect to be in a position to publish details of a comprehensive mapping exercise later this year which will allow both industry and citizens to see precisely where the proposed State intervention is likely to be and to raise any queries or issues with my Department before the intervention is finalised.