Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Renua Ireland)
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361. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of premises forecast to be covered by the national broadband plan’s intervention by commercial high-speed broadband services by county by the end of 2016, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3758/16]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table. The information contained in the table is derived from the data provided by commercial operators to my Department in the course of the National Broadband Plan mapping exercise. This exercise was conducted by the Department in the period from July 2013 - December 2015.

The target areas identified for State intervention are based upon these figures. The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available on shows the extent of industry commitments to end 2016, indicating that 70% of addresses in Ireland will have access to high speed broadband within that timescale, with the remaining 30% representing the target for the proposed State intervention. The areas marked in BLUE on the map indicate where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services by end 2016. The areas marked AMBER on the map represent the target areas for 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.

On 22nd December 2015, I launched the formal procurement process for the State intervention. There is a process in place to update the map as appropriate during the procurement process. Consequently, the balance between premises served commercially and those served through the State intervention may change.

Existing and planned Commercial High Speed Broadband premises covered:this is the number of premises listed by county that commercial operators have indicated would be able to receive high speed broadband by end 2016.

Number of Premises covered by State Intervention:This is the number of premises listed by county that are currently expected to be covered by the proposed State led Intervention. It is envisaged that 60% of these premises will have access to services by 2018 with 100% having access by 2020.