Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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615. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of plans for a quality broadband service in Derryadd, Kenagh, County Longford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32352/17]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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623. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the timeframe for the rollout of the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32539/17]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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624. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his attention has been drawn to the need to improve broadband telecommunications infrastructure throughout County Cavan; when it is expected that the national broadband plan will be rolled out to benefit areas such as County Cavan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32540/17]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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625. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his attention has been drawn to the need to improve broadband telecommunications infrastructure throughout County Monaghan; when it is expected that the national broadband plan will be rolled out to benefit areas such as County Monaghan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32541/17]

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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626. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will address a matter (details supplied) regarding broadband roll out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32551/17]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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643. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of premises, both commercial and households that will be connected to high speed fibre broadband in County Galway in the next 76 weeks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32802/17]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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644. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of premises, both commercial and households that will be connected to high speed fibre broadband in south County Mayo in the next 76 weeks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32803/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 615, 623 to 626, inclusive, 643 and 644 together.

Through the National Broadband Plan (NBP) the Government has committed to intervening to ensure high speed broadband is available in parts of the country where commercial providers acting alone will not provide this essential service. This commitment to intervene will ensure that no part of Ireland, no household, no school, no business is left behind.

This unequivocal commitment by Government to deliver the NBP has also served as a catalyst for industry in bringing forward investment in new infrastructure in towns, villages and rural areas of Ireland. As of today, approximately 1.4m or 61% of premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband of a minimum of 30 Megabits per second. This footprint is continuing to expand and it is expected to rise to 77% by the end of 2018. For those areas that will not be covered by commercial operators the State has committed to intervene and subsidise a network build.

In April, eir signed a agreement with me committing them to follow through on their commercial plans to provide new high speed broadband infrastructure to 300,000 premises in rural areas. eir has committed to doing this work over a 90 week period with an average of 500 premises passed per day.  A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department's website . The decision by eir to invest in infrastructure to deploy high speed broadband services to an additional 300,000 premises in rural Ireland was taken by eir on commercial grounds. Neither I, nor my Department, have a statutory authority to direct eir in this regard.

Quarterly updates on progress of the eir 300k rollout will be published on my Departments website. The Q1 figures have been verified by my Department and the eir rollout is in line with the Commitment Agreement.

In April I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. This map finalises the State Intervention Area for the procurement process and is an important milestone in the procurement process. The Map shows the extent of  the State Intervention area and also the areas targeted for commercial services. The Map, which is searchable by address or eircode, has been developed by my Department using extensive information obtained from commercial operators and will be updated to show quarterly progress of the eir rollout.

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

- The AMBER areas on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the areas that will require State Intervention and are the subject of the current procurement process.

There are approximately 2.3m premises in Ireland, of which approximately 542,000 (23%) premises are located in the Intervention area on the Map. These premises will require State intervention and are the focus for the procurement process. The remaining premises are located in the BLUE areas and will be served by commercial operators. Individuals can themselves check whether their premises is in a BLUE or an AMBER area by accessing the High Speed Broadband Map and entering their Eircode at www.broadband.gov.ie. The position in relation to the areas referred to by the Deputies is set out below.

The map shows that 100% of the townland of Derryad, Co Longford  will be part of the State led Intervention under the NBP.

There are c. 42,000 premises in County Cavan, of which c17,000 are located in the Amber area on the Map, and will benefit from the NBP’s State Intervention. The remaining c25,000 premises are located in the commercial BLUE area and will be served by commercial operators. This figure includes c7,000 premises that fall within eir’s plans to deliver rural high speed broadband between now and end 2018 (Light BLUE on map).

There are  c.33,000 premises In Co Monaghan, of which c16,000 premises will benefit from the NBP’s State Intervention. The remaining c17,000 premises are located in the commercial BLUE area and will be served by commercial operators. This figure includes c 4,000 premises that fall within eir’s plans to deliver rural high speed broadband between now and end 2018 (Light BLUE on map).

In relation to Co Kerry there are c89,000 premises of which c29,000 premises will benefit from the NBP's State Intervention. The remaining c60,000 premises are located in the commercial BLUE area and will be served by commercial operators. This figure includes c24,000 premises that fall within eir's plans to deliver rural high speed broadband between now and end of 2018 (Light BLUE on map).

There are  c133,000 premises in Co Galway of which c27,000 fall within eir's plans to deliver rural high speed broadband between now and the end of 2018 (Light BLUE on map).

In the case of Co Mayo there are c83,000 premises of which c16,000 premises fall within eir's plans to deliver rural high speed broadband between now and the end of 2018 (Light BLUE on map).

A full set of county statistics are available atwww.broadband.gov.ie.

Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at .

The procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State Intervention area 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 three bidders have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution. A fibre-to-the-home solution means that householders and businesses may get speeds not just of 30 Megabits per second but much higher, potentially up to 1000 Megabits per second.

The timeframe for 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. 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.

The rate of demand for data services has increased exponentially in the last four years and this presents a continuing challenge for telecommunication operators, regulators and policy makers both in Ireland and internationally. Recognising this challenge, I specifically included in the Programme for Government a commitment to a Mobile Phone and Broadband Task force. In July 2016, I established the Task Force to identify immediate solutions to broadband and mobile phone coverage deficits and investigate how better services could be provided to consumers, prior to the full build and roll-out of the network planned under the National Broadband Plan State Intervention. The report of the Task Force was published in December and is available on both Departments' websites.

In producing this report, the Task Force worked with Departments, local authorities, ComReg, State agencies, the telecoms industry and other key stakeholders. The report contains 40 actions that will alleviate some of the telecommunications deficits across Ireland and the implementation programme on mobile phone and broadband access identifies 19 of these actions as areas where immediate and direct action by Departments and State agencies can ensure accelerated benefits to consumers.

In order to maintain momentum created by the Task Force, I established an Implementation Group to drive and monitor the implementation of the actions, bringing together all key stakeholders identified in the Task Force report with responsibility for delivery. This group will be formally reporting every 90 days on progress made on all actions. I published the first such quarterly progress report on 13th June 2017, which is available on my Department's website at and which shows that considerable progress has been made, particularly in relation to the implementation of actions identified for Q1 2017.

The work of the Task Force will also assist local authorities in preparing for the roll-out of the new NBP network once contracts are in place.

In addition, following regulations which I signed last year, ComReg recently announced the results of its auction for the 3.6GHz radio spectrum band, which means an 86% increase in spectrum capacity to meet the growing demand for mobile and wireless broadband services across rural and urban areas. The Regulator has awarded 15 year licences for the rights of use in this band which will provide a degree of stability and create future investment certainty. Spectrum was also awarded in lots covering 9 urban and rural regions across the country.

In my Department's Estimates for 2017, I have secured an €8 million provision for RTE to allow it to free up the 700 MHz spectrum band. ComReg in turn will make plans to allocate this spectrum to provide for significantly enhanced mobile coverage. The 700 MHz band is particularly suited to rural environments where the signal can travel long distances.

This comprehensive package of initiatives which I have developed and continue to manage will assist in enhancing the quality of mobile phone and data services across Ireland and particularly in rural Ireland.