Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 June 2015
246. Deputy Michael Creed asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide details on the way a person (details supplied) in County Cork can best attain a broadband connection; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23984/15]
View answerThe National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided.
Last November I 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 area shows the target areas for the State intervention and includes the area of Moneycusker, County Cork. All premises within the AMBER areas will be included in the State's intervention.
Eircom recently announced an investment that may address a further 300,000 premises with fibre-to-the-premises technology by 2020. My Department will be rigorously examining the assurances from Eircom in relation to these new plans, which is a requirement for all operators, and will review how this impacts the proposed intervention area. Intensive design and planning work is underway in my Department to produce a detailed intervention strategy for the AMBER area. Following a public consultation process on the draft Intervention Strategy this summer, I hope to move to formal procurement phase towards the end of this year in order to select a preferred bidder or bidders. I expect the physical build of the network to begin in late 2016, and it will take 3-5 years to fully complete – depending on the details of the bid or bids selected.
