Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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15. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to improve the broadband telecommunications service throughout counties Cavan and Monaghan; if he is aware that households, educational and business interests, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, are concerned about the inadequate service that exists in many areas in these counties; if he will undertake the necessary investment programme without further delay to bring the broadband services up to a proper standard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21512/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The National Broadband Plan is a priority for Government and Plan is being delivered through a combination of investment by telecommunications operators and a State Intervention in areas where commercial investment is not forthcoming. This is reflected in the High Speed Broadband Map, at broadband.gov.ie. The areas marked BLUE on the map are where commercial providers have previously indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services.  The areas marked AMBER represent the State Intervention area. Individuals can check whether their premises is in a BLUE or an AMBER area by entering their address or Eircode. They can also email the Department, quoting their Eircode, to  broadband@dcenr.gov.ie.

There are over 750,000 premises in the Intervention Area, including over 24,000  premises in Cavan and 19,500 in Monaghan. Last week, I announced that a further 170,000 premises will need to be covered by the State Intervention. Further analysis is being undertaken by my Department to identify the exact location of these premises and to adjust the High Speed Broadband Map.

The Department has now moved to the next stage of  the procurement process and three qualifying bidders will commence dialogue with the Department next week. This will be followed by the issue of final tender documents and the current schedule envisages contract(s) award in June 2017. The timing of each stage of the procurement is dependent on a number of factors, including the complexities that may be encountered during the process.

The Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best roll-out strategy, in order to target areas of  poor service, business needs and/or high demand. This will be balanced with the need to roll-out the network in an efficient manner. A prioritisation programme will be put in place and the detailed roll-out plan for the network will be published once contract(s) are in place.

In parallel with the procurement, Minister Humphreys is establishing regional action groups, working with Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Offices, LEADER Groups and other relevant agencies. This will help accelerate the broadband network build in rural Ireland, once a contract(s) has been awarded.