Gabrielle McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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608. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of areas in counties Longford and Westmeath that will require State intervention under the national broadband plan; if work has commenced in providing fibre broadband to these areas; the work that has been undertaken to date in these areas; when fibre broadband is scheduled to be operational in these areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5021/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided.The national high-speed coverage map which I published on the 24th November last shows clearly those areas of the country where public investment will be required. On the same day I also published a public consultation on the mapping process. This consultation will close on the 12th February next. This consultation process aims to ensure the accuracy of the map and to establish where the State will need to intervene. It will further inform the Government’s proposed intervention strategy.

The map and county by county breakdown, which includes lists of every townland on a county-by-county basis, can be accessed at . The areas on the map marked Blue will all have access to high speed broadband services of at least 30Mbps from the commercial sector by end of 2016. The areas marked Amber will require the intervention of the State. It is anticipated that speeds of at least 30Mbps will be also delivered through the Government's intervention and the network will be designed to cater for future increased demand from consumers and business.

The map allows all member of the public, be they business or residential, to see whether their premises or home will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by end of 2016 or whether they will be included in the Government’s proposed intervention. It also provides detailed information on over 50,000 townlands throughout the entire country including Counties Longford and Westmeath.

Intensive design and planning work is underway in my Department to produce a detailed intervention strategy. The strategy will address a range of issues in relation to the intervention including inter alia, the optimum approach to enable high speed broadband services to be delivered to the premises identified on the Map. The next steps in this process will see a further public consultation on a detailed intervention strategy in mid-2015. The Intervention Strategy will be notified to the European Commission for State Aid clearance.

Following the public consultation, towards the end of this year a detailed procurement process will be undertaken in order to select a preferred bidder or bidders. It is expected that the physical build of this network will commence from 2016. I am keen to see the implementation begin as quickly as possible and completed at the earliest opportunity.

This complex and ambitious project is a key priority for Government. It aims to conclusively address current connectivity challenges in Ireland.