Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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267. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to the recent announcement by Eircom for improved broadband service in parts of County Limerick, if a townland (details supplied) in County Limerick is included; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28032/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Details relating to the commercial investments referred to in the Deputy's Question are publicly available on the Company's website at www.eircomWholesale.ie. 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 by eircom and other competing networks providers 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. 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 plan to deliver high speed broadband services. The AMBER area on the map shows the target areas for the State intervention. All premises within the AMBER areas will be included in the State's intervention.

Based on information provided by commercial operators 96% of Kilfinane and 100% of Kilmallock will be covered by commercial section. The remaining 4% of Kilfinane, 100% of Ballyorgan and 100% of Keale, Co Limerick will be part of the State intervention.

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

More generally I can confirm that broadband services have been upgraded by commercial operators, to over 48,000 premises to date in Co Limerick with a further 14,000 premises expected to be upgraded. Approximately 33,000 premises in the region are the target for the proposed State intervention under the National Broadband Plan.

The Department has recently received updated information from operators in respect of further commercial roll-out 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 mainly rural parts of the country.