Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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559. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when high-speed broadband will be provided to a townland (details supplied) in County Mayo under the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27676/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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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.

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

Based on information provided by commercial operators, 99% of the townland of Kiltimagh will be covered by the commercial sector while the remaining 1% will be part of the State intervention. I would add that details of investment roll-out programmes by commercial operators are publicly available on their websites.

Members of the public should consult the map to establish for themselves the precise location and status of their individual premises.

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.

More generally I can confirm that next generation broadband services have been rolled out to over 17,000 premises to date in Co Mayo with over 15,000 more expected to be served by commercial investment. The remaining 51,000 premises in Mayo will be covered either by further commercial investment or the proposed State intervention.

The Department has recently received updated information from operators in respect of further commercial rollout of high speed services. The Department is now reviewing all of the data provided by operators for 2016 - 2020 with a view to validating and updating commercial coverage plans and revising the map as appropriate.

In the meantime, 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 Ireland.