Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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324. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No. 463 of 20 April 2016, to reply to the two questions raised, namely, the adequacy of the national broadband strategy in view of concerns raised by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation as outlined, and the cost of upgrading the national broadband strategy to the specifications outlined in the question. [9085/16]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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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 Broadband Intervention strategy for Ireland, which is available at

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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 to all citizens

- be capable of catering for higher performance in the future so as to keep pace with consumer demand

- ensure the availability of high quality wholesale services to allow retail competition to develop.

During pre-procurement consultations, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation correctly highlighted the need to address the specific needs of businesses. This is reflected in the Intervention Strategy published in December 2015, and, in this context, bidder(s) will be invited to put forward minimum speeds for businesses, which can be built into the service standards of the winning bidder(s) contract.

Because a competitive procurement process is currently in train, it would be neither advisable nor appropriate to speculate about the potential overall cost of the NBP at this stage. Ultimately, the outcome of the procurement process will determine the final cost of the intervention and will influence the amount of Exchequer funding that will be required for the NBP.