Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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629. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will account for the low broadband penetration rates in the midlands; the actions being taken to address this matter; the timetable for connecting remaining households and businesses to high-speed Internet of at least 30 megabits per second, the minimum the European Commission has set for a viable service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24530/15]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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630. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the way 45% of business premises in the midlands do not have access to high-speed broadband of at least 30 megabits per second; the actions being taken to address this matter; the timetable for connecting remaining premises; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24531/15]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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631. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources considering that high-speed broadband is vital for businesses to compete on a level playing field in the online marketplace, if he will provide a timetable regarding connecting remaining businesses in the midlands to high-speed broadband Internet access of at least 30 megabits per second; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24532/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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​I propose to take Question Nos 629 to 631, inclusive, together.

The Government's 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. These very significant investments represent a step-change in the quality of broadband services available.

Last November I published a national high speed coverage map for 2016. This map is available at . The map shows Ireland with two colours, BLUE and AMBER. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers plan to deliver high speed broadband services. The AMBER areas on the map show the target areas for the State intervention.

It is anticipated that speeds of at least 30Mbps will be delivered through the Government's intervention and the network will be designed to cater for future increased demand from consumers and business.

Under EU State Aid rules, public investment in a commercial market has to be targeted at areas where there is evidence of market failure. Therefore, the Government's proposed investment under the NBP will apply to those parts of the Midlands comprising Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath that are within the Amber areas of our map. Those premises in the Midlands that fall within the Blue areas will be provided with services through commercial investment.

Eircom recently 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.

More generally I can confirm that next generation broadband services have been rolled out to 52,758 premises to date in the Midlands covering counties Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath with a further 26,843 expected to be served through commercial investment. The remaining 62,836 premises in those counties will be covered by further commercial investment or the proposed State intervention.

Intensive design and planning work is underway 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 expect the physical build of the network to begin in late 2016, and it will take 3-5 years to fully complete – depending on the details of the bid or bids selected.

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.