Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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898. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the provision of efibre broadband to a person (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1160/16]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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On the 22 December 2015, I formally launched the procurement process for the State Intervention to provide high quality, high speed broadband to all premises in Ireland that may not be served through commercial investment. The formal procurement commenced with the publication of the Project Information Memorandum and the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire. In addition, my Department also published:

- the National Intervention Strategy – updated in December 2015, which takes account of responses to the public consultation which took place in July 2015 and subsequent expert analysis; and

- the High Speed Broadband Map 2020 which follows ongoing engagement with industry and public consultation.

The Intervention strategy sets out a detailed service specification including a requirement that the State-funded network must be capable of delivering high-quality, high speed broadband of at least 30mbps download and 6mbps upload. It must also be capable of catering for higher performance in the future so as to keep pace with consumer demand. It is therefore a matter for bidders to select the technology which will show how they propose to meet these contractual requirements.

The 2020 map is available at . The map shows Ireland with two colours, BLUE and AMBER. 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. The areas marked AMBER represent the target areas for the proposed State intervention and includes Inch, Co Kerry. Members of the public can see whether their individual premises is in the BLUE or AMBER area by inserting their Eircode, and/ or address, or scrolling through the map.

The Government is determined to ensure that the network is 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.

In this context, the NBP 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 all addresses passed by 2020.

More generally, I am informed by the commercial operators that next generation broadband services have been rolled out to over 27,500 premises to date in County Kerry with over 11,000 more expected to be serviced by commercial investment. Approximately 51,000 remaining premises in County Kerry will be covered either by further commercial investment or the proposed State intervention.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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899. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the provision of broadband in an area (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1178/16]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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On the 22 December 2015, I formally launched the procurement process for the State Intervention to provide high quality, high speed broadband to all premises in Ireland that may not be served through commercial investment. The formal procurement commenced with the publication of the Project Information Memorandum and the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire. In addition, my Department also published:

-the National Intervention Strategy – updated in December 2015, which takes account of responses to the public consultation which took place in July 2015 and subsequent expert analysis; and

-the High Speed Broadband Map 2020 which follows ongoing engagement with industry and public consultation.

The Intervention strategy sets out a detailed service specification including a requirement that the State-funded network must be capable of delivering high-quality, high speed broadband of at least 30mbps download and 6mbps upload. It must also be capable of catering for higher performance in the future so as to keep pace with consumer demand. It is therefore a matter for bidders to select the technology which will show how they propose to meet these contractual requirements.

The 2020 map is available at . The map shows Ireland with two colours, BLUE and AMBER. 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. The areas marked AMBER represent the target areas for the proposed State intervention and includes part of Blackvalley, Co Kerry. Members of the public can see whether their individual premises is in the BLUE or AMBER area by inserting their Eircode, and/ or address, or scrolling through the map.

The Government is determined to ensure that the network is 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.

In this context, the NBP 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 all addresses passed by 2020.

More generally, I am informed by the commercial operators that next generation broadband services have been rolled out to over 27,500 premises to date in County Kerry with over 11,000 more expected to be serviced by commercial investment. Approximately 51,000 remaining premises in County Kerry will be covered either by further commercial investment or the proposed State intervention.