Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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570. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the extent to which any initiatives are afoot to address deficiencies in the telecommunications sector with a view to ensuring that all segments of the sector are up to international standards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39591/15]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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571. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if the capacity of the telecommunications sector is adequate to meet requirements, including demand arising from economic growth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39592/15]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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572. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if there has been any assessment of the efficacy of the telecommunications sector; the nature of any weaknesses identified; any proposed remedial action; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39593/15]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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573. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources who has responsibility for and control of ensuring the provision of an adequate telecommunications infrastructure; the steps taken or intended in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39594/15]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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575. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the extent to which he expects broadband quality and service to improve on an annual basis over the next four years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39596/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 570 to 573, inclusive, and 575 together.

Government policy in the area of telecommunications and broadband is aimed at delivering high speed broadband and general telecommunications access across the country by creating an environment conducive to commercial investment and by using State assets where appropriate. The State itself is not a player in this market and will only intervene in the broadband market in cases of clear market failure - the recent National Broadband Scheme and the proposed intervention under the National Broadband Plan are examples of such interventions.

The commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing approximately €2.5bn in upgrading and modernising both fixed and mobile networks. This includes some €850m invested in acquiring spectrum under the 2012 Multi-Band Spectrum Auction run by ComReg. Since then, the mobile operators have all continued to invest in rolling out 4G and enhanced 3G services nationwide. These investments are improving both the coverage and quality of voice and data services throughout the country.

In 2012 when the National Broadband Plan was first published, industry committed to providing high speed broadband to 1 million addresses in Ireland by 2015, with top speeds ranging from 100 Mbps for cable and 70 Mbps for eFibre services.

Today, cable is delivering speeds of up to 240 Mbps to over 700,000 addresses and fibre-to-the-cabinet services of up to 100 Mbps are available to approximately 1.3 million addresses. By the end of 2016, it is envisaged that high speed broadband will be available to 1.6 million addresses in Ireland. That compares to only 300,000 addresses five years ago.

However, as the National Broadband Plan acknowledges, much of this investment is focussed on urban centres and towns and many rural areas are not likely to benefit in any meaningful way. Consequently, the Government has made significant commitments under the National Broadband Plan to ensure that all premises, irrespective of location, will have access to high-speed, high-quality future proofed broadband services by 2020.

The combination of significant commercial investment plus the strong commitments for public funding for non-commercial areas will mean that Ireland's telecommunications and broadband networks will be among the best and most modern in the EU and beyond, capable of meeting both current and anticipated future growth in bandwidth demand.