Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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619. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when he expects the telecommunications sector, encompassing broadband, to become comparable to the best in Europe; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45374/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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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 is being achieved through a combination of the commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided.

Currently approximately 1.2m premises in Ireland have access to high speed services, provided commercially. It is expected that 1.6m premises will have access to such services by the end of 2016. Industry is investing significantly in the market, with top speeds of up to 240mbps available in some areas, and up to 1gbps where fibre-to-the-home services are being rolled out.

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.

The National Broadband Plan proposes that through the combination of commercial investment and State intervention, 85% of addresses in Ireland will have access to high speed services by 2018 with an ambition of 100% coverage by 2020. This complex and ambitious project is a key priority for Government. It aims to conclusively address current connectivity challenges in Ireland.

I am confident that the combination of existing commercial investment and the State intervention will make Ireland an exemplar in Europe and beyond, in terms of providing high speed services to all citizens regardless of where they live or work.

In the mobile telephony market, market operators are currently investing in the rollout of 4G networks. These are providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities over previous 3G and 2G technologies. These 4G networks use the same technology as the most modern mobile networks providing public access internationally.