Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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261. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his Department has any plans to extend broadband cover to a certain location in County Cork (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33718/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is a Government initiative which aims to deliver high speed broadband to every citizen and business in Ireland. This is being achieved through a combination of accelerated commercial investment by telecoms operators, and a proposed State intervention to provide high speed broadband to those parts of the country where the commercial sector will not invest. On Tuesday 29 September the Government approved an allocation of €275m for the National Broadband Plan, which will provide the initial stimulus required to deliver the Government's intervention. Combined with commercial investment, this will ensure that 85% of Ireland's premises have high speed broadband by 2018, with 100% coverage by 2020.

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 and was developed based on the most up to date information available at the time of publication. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services by the end of 2016 and includes part of Fountainstown in County Cork.

The areas marked AMBER represent those areas where the State intends to intervene to ensure those areas will have access to high speed broadband services. My Department's map indicates that 32% of premises in Fountainstown will be covered by the NBP intervention, which means that all other premises in the area will have high speed broadband of at least 30mbps by the end of 2016.

My Department is currently in the process of updating the Map, taking into consideration any new information received or operator announcements made of any new plans in 2016 and beyond. We expect to publish an updated version of the Map before the end of this year.

I would encourage members of the public to consult both my Department's map and the information being provided by the commercial operators on their respective websites to establish the precise situation regarding their individual premises.

The NBP proposed Intervention Strategy document, which was published on 15 July last, sets out a series of detailed proposals by Government in respect of the proposed State intervention. It sets out the key elements of the intervention - what services are proposed and how they will be delivered. It outlines various aspects of the proposed intervention including the type of network envisaged, the minimum speeds being demanded, the length of the contract for services, and whether the network should be public or privately owned.

It is intended that the network will be built out as quickly as possible and engagement with industry stakeholders has indicated that this could be achieved within 3-5 years of the contract award. This will allow us to ensure that every home, school and business in Ireland will have access to high speed services, by 2020 at the latest.

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is a Government initiative which aims to deliver high speed broadband to every citizen and business in Ireland. This is being achieved through a combination of accelerated commercial investment by telecoms operators, and a proposed State intervention to provide high speed broadband to those parts of the country where the commercial sector will not invest. On 29 September the Government approved an allocation of €275m for the National Broadband Plan, which will provide the initial stimulus required to deliver the Government's intervention. Combined with commercial investment, this will ensure that 85% of Ireland's premises have high speed broadband by 2018, with 100% coverage by 2020.

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 and was developed based on the most up to date information available at the time of publication. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services by end 2016.

The areas marked AMBER represent those areas where the State intends to intervene to ensure those areas will have access to high speed broadband services.

This exercise identified 33,336 premises that will be covered by commercial operators (27,640 residential and 5,696 business) by the end of 2016. 50,831 premises currently fall within the NBP intervention area (39,218 residential and 11,613 business).

My Department is in the process of updating the Map, taking into consideration any new information received or operator announcements made of any new plans in 2016 and beyond. We expect to publish an updated version of the Map before the end of this year.

The NBP proposed Intervention Strategy document, which was published on 15 July last, sets out a series of detailed proposals by Government in respect of the proposed State intervention. It sets out the key elements of the intervention - what services are proposed and how they will be delivered. It outlines various aspects of the proposed intervention including the type of network envisaged, the minimum speeds being demanded, the length of the contract for services, and whether the network should be public or privately owned.

It is intended that the network will be built out as quickly as possible and engagement with industry stakeholders has indicated that this could be achieved within 3-5 years of the contract award. This will allow us to ensure that every home, school and business in Ireland will have access to high speed services, by 2020 at the latest.