Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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265. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the total number of premises targeted for delivery of high speed fibre internet broadband for companies (details supplied); if his Department has held discussions on the estimated number of premises to be targeted for delivery of this broadband; if so, the number; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25418/15]

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. Last November I published a national high speed coverage map for 2016. The map identifies every townland on a county-by-county basis and can be accessed 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 and includes some 750,000 addresses.

Investment decisions by telecommunications networks providers, including the specific location of particular investments, are commercial decisions for the companies concerned and I have no role in the timing or location of these investments.

eircom recently announced an investment that may cover a further 300,000 addresses with fibre-to-the-premises high speed broadband.

The new ESB/Vodafone Joint Venture company SIRO, which was formally launched on 14 May 2015, plans to deliver fibre-to-the-home services to 500,000 homes and businesses in 50 towns across Ireland. The company has not formally announced any further roll-out plans to-date.

Details of investment roll-out programmes are publicly available on the websites of both companies.

New private planned high speed broadband investments, such as those recently announced by eircom and SIRO, may be added to the national high-speed coverage map, once it is established that these plans are definitive and meet the relevant criteria to deliver high speed broadband service to end users. Until the necessary analysis is completed, it would not be appropriate to comment any further.

It is envisaged that the map will be updated on an ongoing basis from now until the award of a contract or contracts relating to the State intervention.

Ultimately the aim of the National Broadband Plan is to ensure that all premises will have access to high speed broadband, whether through commercial investment or a State funded intervention.

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