Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 March 2015
37. Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 8 and 14 of 23 October 2014 regarding the State-led investment aspect of the national broadband plan, the progress that has been made with regard to the further public consultation on a detailed intervention strategy to be launched in mid-2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10491/15]
View answerLast November the Minister published a national high speed coverage map for 2016. This map is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas that will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by end 2016. The AMBER areas show the target areas for the State intervention under the National Broadband Plan (NBP). The map allows all members of the public, be they business or residential, to see whether their premises/home will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by end 2016 or whether they will be included in the Government's proposed intervention.
A public consultation on the map, which commenced in November, closed on 12 February last. 29 submissions have been received to date and will be assessed over the coming weeks. These included 13 responses from telecommunications operators, 2 responses from equipment vendors, 7 responses from Local Authorities and representative bodies and 7 responses from individual citizens.
There was a substantive response to the questions posed in the consultation document, in some cases with additional material and views in relation to the NBP and the importance of the State intervention as a whole. The Department is considering the responses to the consultation and the outcome will be incorporated in the assessment of operator coverage.
It is proposed to publish the non-confidential responses on the Department's website shortly.
This will help inform the key decisions that require to be taken in order to finalise our comprehensive Intervention Strategy which the Minister intends publishing for consultation in July next.
There will be engagement with industry, stakeholders and the general public to the greatest extent possible as the Intervention Strategy which will underpin this ambitious proposed investment evolves.
