Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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1114. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the level of community engagement in the process of the rolling-out of high speed broadband in remote areas, thus far; the way he will ensure community engagement continues once high speed broadband is rolled out; the training supports that will be available to communities wanting to maximise the use of broadband in the community setting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21638/15]

Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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1115. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he has considered alternative schemes facilitating remote communities with high speed broadband in the event that it is deemed commercially unviable, such as three-way agreements between local authorities, private firms and the State, or co-operative led schemes, or not-for-profit led schemes, successfully used in other countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21639/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1114 and 1115 together.

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 commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing approximately €2.5 billion in network upgrades and enhanced services with approximately 1.6 million of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland expected to have access to commercial high speed broadband services over the next two years. These very significant investments represent a step-change in the quality of broadband services available.

On 24 November 2014, a public consultation was launched on a national high speed coverage map 2016. This consultation concluded on 12 February 2015. 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.

The AMBER area shows the target areas for the State intervention. All premises within the AMBER areas will be included in the State's intervention. Last week Eircom announced an investment that may address a further 300,000 premises with fibre-to-the-premises technology. My Department will be rigorously examining the assurances from Eircom in relation to these new plans, which is a requirement for all operators, and will review how this impacts the proposed intervention area.

I intend publishing a draft Intervention Strategy for public consultation in July. Following completion of that public consultation I hope to be in a position to move to formal procurement later in the year. I expect the physical build of the network to begin in late 2016, and it will take between three and five years to fully complete – depending on the details of the bid or bids selected.

I would add that stakeholder engagement is central to the delivery of the NBP and as part of the planning phase significant stakeholder engagement has been undertaken by my Department. This includes a number of public consultations including on the published national coverage map referred to above. The engagement process also included meetings with Local Authorities, Leader Groups, Irish Rural Link, the Western Development Commission and others. In addition, my Department publishes a monthly update on progress in relation to the NBP.

This complex and ambitious project is a key priority for Government and aims to conclusively address current broadband connectivity issues in mainly rural parts of the country with a view to ensuring that all citizens and businesses can participate fully in a digitally enabled society.

There is a potential role for communities to aggregate demand for services in their areas and in so doing accelerate the deployment and adoption of such services. At least one operator has successfully piloted this model with businesses in rural towns.

The BenefIT Programme, which aims to get more people online, provides Government funding to support community, voluntary & not for profit organisations to provide basic digital literacy training. Since its introduction in 2008, over 120,000 training places have been availed of and training will be available at over 700 locations across Ireland during 2015.