Gabrielle McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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579. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide an update on the implementation of the national broadband plan, with particular reference to Counties Longford and Westmeath; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17838/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The National Broadband Plan is delivering high speed broadband to every home and business in Ireland regardless of its location. This is being achieved through a partnership between Government and commercial telecommunications companies. The Plan has created a policy and regulatory environment that is helping to stimulate commercial investment.

The commercial telecommunications sector has responded by investing approximately €2.5 billion in network upgrades and enhanced services. It is providing high speed broadband to approximately 1.6 million of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland, with services already rolled out to over 1m premises. These very significant investments represent a step-change in the quality of broadband services available. The Government will ensure that broadband is delivered to the remaining 30% of premises, through a State-funded intervention.

Last November I published a national high speed coverage map for 2016. This map is available at . The areas marked BLUE represent those areas that will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by end 2016 and represents 70% of the premises in Ireland. The AMBER areas show the target areas for the State intervention.

The website also provides information on a county by county basis with a breakdown of coverage across the townlands in every county including Longford and Westmeath. I understand that commercial high speed broadband services is already available to over 7,000 premises in Longford and over 20,000 in Westmeath. When commercial roll-out of high speed services in both counties is complete by the end of next year, a further 3,800 premises in Longford and 6,500 in Westmeath will have access to services.

The proposed State intervention will include a further 11,691 premises in Longford (52% of the total premises in the county) and some 17,814 premises in Westmeath (40% of the county's premises).

The map can be checked to establish the precise location of individual premises or residences. Any premise within the AMBER area will be included in the State’s intervention while any premise within the BLUE area will be serviced by commercial operators.

Intensive design and planning work is under way in my Department to produce a detailed intervention strategy for the AMBER area. Following a public consultation process on the draft Intervention Strategy this summer, I hope to move to formal procurement phase towards the end of this year in order to select a preferred bidder or bidders.

I anticipate that the first homes and businesses will be connected in 2016 and connections will continue thereafter, with the intention of having all premises connected within a 5 year period.

A monthly update on commercial roll-out of high speed broadband and on the development of the State intervention programme is available on .

Gabrielle McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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580. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the way the Electricity Supply Board and Vodafone fibre network roll-out dovetails with the national broadband plan; if the nationwide plans of these companies to roll out this network is part of the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17839/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The National Broadband Plan is delivering high speed broadband to every home and business in Ireland regardless of its location. This is being achieved through a partnership between Government and commercial telecommunications companies.

A key element of the National Broadband Plan is the creation of a policy and regulatory environment that helps stimulate commercial investment. In 2014, the Oireachtas passed legislation introduced by my Department, which has enabled ESB to enter the telecommunications market using its extensive electricity distribution network. Following the enactment of the legislation, the two shareholding Ministers - the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform - consented to ESB entering into a Joint Venture with Vodafone Ireland. The two companies have since announced plans to deliver fibre-to-the-home services to 500,000 homes and businesses in 50 towns across Ireland, with the possibility of a further expansion of this €450m investment programme.

The commercial telecommunications sector has responded by investing approximately €2.5 billion in network upgrades and enhanced services. It is providing high speed broadband to approximately 1.6 million of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland, which includes services to be rolled out by ESB/Vodafone. Services have already been rolled out by commercial operators to over 1m premises. These very significant investments represent a step-change in the quality of broadband services available. The Government will ensure that broadband is delivered to the remaining 30% of premises, through a State-funded intervention.

Working closely with industry, last November I published a national high speed coverage map which provides detail of every premises that will have access to high speed broadband from commercial operators by the end of 2016. This map is available at . The areas marked BLUE represent the premises that will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by end 2016. The AMBER parts of the map show the target areas for the State intervention.

Intensive design and planning work is under way in my Department to produce a detailed intervention strategy for the AMBER area. Following a public consultation process on the draft Intervention Strategy this summer, I hope to move to formal procurement phase towards the end of this year in order to select a preferred bidder or bidders.

In delivering this combination of commercial and State-led investment in high speed broadband, my Department continues to engage intensively with all commercial operators, including ESB/Vodafone. Details of our engagement with industry are provided in monthly updates on the Department's mapping website