Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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483. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the broadband speeds that will be needed to satisfy future demand; his plans to meet this demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2898/16]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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484. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the potential impact on job creation of faster broadband across the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2899/16]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 483 and 484 together.

The Government strongly supports the importance of high quality Broadband connectivity as an enabling infrastructure for long term economic and social sustainability.

The Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) 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 and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided.

The commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing approximately €2.5 billion in network upgrades and enhanced services. These very significant investments represent a step change in the quality of broadband services available.

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.

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. Members of the public can see whether their individual premise 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 in the AMBER area 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.

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.

Providing reliable high speed broadband to every premises in the Intervention Area will support employment in farming, micro-enterprises and Government’s regional enterprise policies.

Direct new jobs will be created during the construction phase of the network build and are expected for the duration of the contract. Indirect jobs will result from demand created by the project in addition to jobs directly related to it. The additional income generated through those jobs will in turn increase household spending which will stimulate further employment.

It is envisaged that access to high speed broadband coupled with the measures being introduced under the National Digital Strategy will maximise growth potential in rural areas by encouraging businesses to make better use of the internet so that they can reach wider markets, grow their business and create jobs.