Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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801. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he is aware of the concern of local residents and business over the inadequate broadband telecommunications infrastructure in a town (details supplied) in County Cavan; when the residents in that town and its catchment area can expect to have a modern and up-to-date broadband infrastructure provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6259/16]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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802. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he is aware of the concern of local residents and business over the inadequate broadband telecommunications infrastructure in a town (details supplied) in County Cavan; when the residents in that town and its catchment area can expect to have a modern and up-to-date broadband infrastructure provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6260/16]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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803. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when he expects to have modern broadband telecommunications infrastructure provided in an area (details supplied) in County Cavan; if he is aware that businesses and residents are very concerned regarding the inadequate broadband available in that area at present; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6261/16]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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804. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when he expects to have modern broadband telecommunications infrastructure provided in an area (details supplied) in County Cavan; if he is aware that businesses and residents are concerned regarding the inadequate broadband available in that area at present; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6262/16]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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805. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when he expects to have modern broadband telecommunications infrastructure provided in an area (details supplied) in County Monaghan; if he is aware that businesses and residents are concerned regarding the inadequate broadband available in that area at present; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6263/16]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 801 to 805, inclusive, together.

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 is being 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 has invested over €2 billion in network upgrades and enhanced services in the last four years, and is continuing to invest.  These very significant investments represent a step change in the quality of broadband services available.

On 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 process commenced with the publication of the Pre-qualification Questionnaire and Project Information Memorandum. Five responses were received from prospective bidders to this stage of the competitive procurement process by the deadlinee of 31 March.  The responses are now being assessed in line with criteria set down by the Department  with a view to  selecting qualified provider(s) to proceed to the next stage of the procurement i.e. Invitation to Tender (ITT).

The High Speed Broadband Map 2020, which is available at shows the extent of the State Intervention area.  The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.  The areas marked AMBER represent the target areas for the State Intervention.

The townlands to which the Deputy refers are set out in the table below, which shows the percentage of premises that are expected to be covered by commercial investments, and the percentage that will be covered by the State Intervention.

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 30 mbps download and 6 mbps upload. It must also be capable of catering for higher performance in the future so as to keep pace with consumer demand.

The intention is to build out the network in the AMBER area as quickly as possible.  The Department will engage with the winning bidder(s) on the optimum rollout strategy, and on the sequencing of the network deployment to maximise efficiencies during network build, having regard to business and consumer needs, and to areas of particularly poor service and areas of strong demand. All these factors will need to be balanced against the most efficient network rollout and will be agreed during the procurement process.

Engagement with industry stakeholders as part of the pre-procurement consultations has indicated that the rollout in the Amber area 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.