Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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412. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the national broadband plan, with reference to the Foynes area, County Limerick, and with particular reference to Marine Cove Estate, Foynes, County Limerick; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32670/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority.  This is being achieved through private investment by commercial telecommunications companies and through a State intervention in areas where commercial investment has not been fully demonstrated. The formal procurement process for the State Intervention commenced in December 2015.

The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie, shows the extent of the State Intervention area:

- The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have previously indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services.

- The areas marked AMBER on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the target areas for the State Intervention which are the subject of the current procurement process.

Marine Cove in the townland of Ballynacragga North is within the BLUE area and therefore is expected to be covered by commercial operators. Members of the public can view whether their premises in County Limerick are in the BLUE or AMBER area by accessing the High Speed Broadband Map and entering their Eircode.

While I cannot compel any operator to provide services to a particular premises, my Department continues to actively monitor the deployment plans in the BLUE area and direct feedback from consumers is important. In this regard, if customers in the Marine Cove area cannot access high speed broadband services, I would encourage them to contact my Department directly at broadband@dcenr.gov.ie, quoting their address and Eircode, and giving details of providers they have contacted with a view to obtaining services so that my Department may investigate further.

The Department is now in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State Intervention Area comprising over 750,000 premises in Ireland including over 33,000 premises in County Limerick, covering 100,000 km of road network and 96% of the land area of Ireland. Since bidders were invited to participate in dialogue with the Department, there have been approximately 150 hours of meetings, with considerable more interaction to follow over the coming months.

Earlier this year, before I came into office, the Department announced that it would be June 2017 before contract(s) were awarded under the NBP. The bidders in the process have recently indicated that they may need more time to conclude the procurement process. The timing of each stage of the procurement continues to be dependent on a range of factors including the complexities that may be encountered by the procurement team, and bidders, during the procurement process. Bidders need adequate time to prepare detailed proposals and their final formal bids and get the relevant shareholder and funding approvals at key stages of the process. It is also important to ensure that risks in this multi-million euro procurement are carefully managed. I do not propose to comment any further at this juncture, given that discussions are ongoing in the procurement process. I can assure the Deputy, however, that the procurement process is being intensively managed, to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland, for at least 25 years. The Government considers the NBP to be one of the most significant investments in rural Ireland for decades, and one which will transform society, akin to rural electrification in the last century.

During the Department's extensive stakeholder consultations in 2015, telecommunications service providers indicated that it could take 3-5 years to roll out a network of the scale envisaged under the NBP. It is however open to bidder(s) to suggest more aggressive timescales as part of their bids.

As part of the competitive process, the Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best roll-out strategy, in order to target areas of particularly poor service, business needs and / or high demand. This will need to be balanced with the most efficient network roll-out plan. A prioritisation programme will be put in place in this regard, in consultation with the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. A detailed roll-out plan for the network will be published once contract(s) are in place.

The Programme for Government also commits to measures to assist in the roll-out of the network once a contract is awarded. In this regard, Minister Humphreys is leading on the establishment of two regional action groups, working with Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Offices and other relevant agencies to help accelerate the broadband network build in rural Ireland, once a contract(s) has been awarded.