Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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1481. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will prioritise the introduction of high-speed broadband in an area (details supplied) in County Longford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41677/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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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. The strategy for broadband rollout, the National Broadband Plan (NBP), aims to deliver high speed broadband services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment by the telecommunications sector and a State Intervention in those areas where commercial investment has not been fully demonstrated.

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 telecommunications providers are either currently delivering or have previously indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services. To date, 1.4 million premises in the BLUE area can get access to high Speed Broadband.

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

The map provides information on a county by county basis with a breakdown of coverage across the townlands in every county including County Longford. The business referred to by the Deputy falls within the AMBER area and will therefore be included in the State Intervention procurement process, which is now underway.   

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. 

As part of the competitive process, the Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best rollout 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 rollout 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 rollout 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 rollout 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.

In the meantime, my Department continues to liaise closely with industry and relevant other Departments and agencies to assist in the commercial deployment of telecommunications networks. The commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2.5bn in upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high speed broadband and mobile telecoms services.

These investments should assist in significantly improving the coverage and quality of broadband and mobile voice and data services throughout the country, including County Longford.