Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

661. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he is aware of the ongoing problems small businesses are experiencing with slow debit and credit card transactions due to a lack of broadband access in County Donegal, despite being near urban centres such as Letterkenny; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26256/15]

Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

662. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will prioritise the roll-out of high speed broadband to the most disadvantaged areas, including rural areas in County Donegal, as County Donegal is considered one of the most disadvantaged counties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26257/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 661 and 662 together.

The Government recognises that access to high quality, high speed broadband is important for businesses and households throughout Ireland.

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) 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.

The publicly-funded intervention under the NBP will address those parts of the country not included by commercial operators' investment plans. The Plan envisages dealing conclusively with the rural connectivity issues so that current and future generations will have a guaranteed access to high quality, high speed broadband. Whatever the technology used, it must ensure users have a service of at least 30Mbps and be capable of meeting future anticipated traffic growth.

I share the Deputy's concerns about the impact that poor quality connectivity is having on business and households. I will be publishing a draft Intervention Strategy for public consultation shortly, with a view to progressing to formal procurement phase towards the end of this year.

I anticipate that 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.

I also expect that the procurement process will establish the most efficient and cost-effective means of rolling out the network that will enable access to high speed broadband services to be delivered as quickly as possible.

More generally I can confirm that next generation broadband services have been rolled out to 21,238 premises to date in the Donegal with a further 27,276 expected to be served through commercial investment. The remaining 52,004 premises in Donegal will be covered by further commercial investment or the proposed State intervention.

Eircom are currently planning for a Fibre to the Home network in Letterkenny and I understand that services will be launched from end of summer 2015.

I understand also that SIRO, the newly-established Joint Venture between ESB/Vodafone is building a fibre to the building network bringing high speed broadband to 50 regional towns and 500,000 premises across Ireland. The overall programme is expected to be completed by end of 2018 and work has commenced on the first 10 towns, including Letterkenny. An exact date for rollout in Letterkenny is not currently available.

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