Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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252. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the details of the subsea AEC2 fibre optic cable system that is intended to be laid off the west coast, coming ashore in Clew Bay, County Mayo; his plans to extend secondary cables and or connections off the main cable to service Clare Island or Inishturk and other communities on the mainland with broadband; if this potential project is supported by his department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6536/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I welcome news of Aqua Comms DAC (“Aqua Comms”) recently announced commercial plans to lay and operate a new subsea cable system connecting New Jersey, U.S.A., to Ireland, and Denmark.

My understanding is that the HAVFRUE subsea cable is the first new undersea cable traversing the North Atlantic to connect mainland Northern Europe to the U.S. in nearly two decades. Aqua Comms will market and sell capacity services and raw spectrum on its portion of the cable.

The laying of the HAVFRUE / AEC-2 cable system, together with existing systems owned and operated by Aqua Comms, will create a resilient, ring-based infrastructure between the East Coast of the U.S., Ireland, and Northern Europe, connecting the hubs of the pan-Atlantic hyperscale data centre industry in North America, Ireland, and Scandinavia.

As to the intentions of Aquacomms and their investment my Department does not have access to the infrastructure plans of commercial operators. Queries related to the deployment of infrastructure by private commercial operators should be directed to the relevant operator, in this case Aqua Comms DAC, whose website is www.aquacomms.com.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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253. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when high speed broadband will be facilitated in the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6564/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Delivering high speed broadband to citizens across Ireland remains a firm commitment of mine and of this Government.

The premises referred to by the Deputy is in an AMBER area on my Department’s High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. It will therefore be included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

My Department is in a formal procurement process to select a company who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. When the procurement process reaches a satisfactory conclusion for Government, a contract will be awarded and the network roll-out will commence.

In the interim, practical initiatives will continue to be addressed through the work of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Task force to address obstacles and improve connectivity in respect of existing and future mobile phone and broadband services.

Under this Task force, engagement between telecommunications operators and local authorities through the Broadband Officers is continuing to strengthen.  These Broadband Officers are acting as single points of contact in local authorities for their communities. The appointment of these officers is already reaping rewards in terms of ensuring a much greater degree of consistency in engagements with operators and clearing obstacles to developing infrastructure.  There is a link to a list of these local Broadband Officers on my Department's website.