Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 October 2016
173. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the grants or assistance available to help small rural businesses in counties Cavan or Monaghan avail of higher-speed broadband connections to make running a business from home a reality. [32422/16]
View answerThe National Broadband Plan (NBP) represents a very significant capital investment project for the State and aims to deliver high speed 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 Programme for a Partnership Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority.
The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at http://www.dccae.gov.ie/communications/en-ie/Broadband/Pages/National-Broadband-Plan-Map-.aspx shows the extent of the State Intervention area:
- The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have previously indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services.
- The areas marked AMBER on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the target areas for the State Intervention which are 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 Co Meath. Individuals can check whether their premises is in a BLUE or an AMBER area by scrolling through the map online or entering their Eircode. The Department also has a dedicated mailbox and anyone with a query in relation to the Map should email the Department, quoting their Eircode, to broadband@dcenr.gov.ie.
The Department is now in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network to the over 750,000 premises in Ireland, covering 100,000km of road network and 96% of the land area of Ireland. Intensive dialogue with bidders is continuing and the three bidders have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution. Householders and businesses may potentially get speeds not just of 30Mbps but up to 1Gbps with businesses potentially availing of symmetrical upload and download speeds.
Separately, my Department's Trading Online Voucher Scheme is specifically designed to support small and micro enterprises to trade online. Small businesses that remain offline are missing out on a huge opportunity to capture some of the €14,000 worth of business transacted online every minute, up to 70% of which goes overseas.
The scheme is administered by the national network of 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) and offers financial assistance of up to €2,500 (subject to match funding), along with expert training and advice. Over 2,600 small businesses including 30 businesses in County Cavan and 42 businesses in County Monaghan have, to date, successfully applied for a trading online voucher. The scheme is activating small businesses and sole traders from across a wide range of sectors including, retail, manufacturing, professional services, food as well as arts, crafts and design.
In May this year, I published an evaluation of the enterprise impacts of the scheme which shows that it is helping small businesses to grow on average by 21%, increase employment by 35%, and 60% export for the first time. Digital trade is contributing to sustainable regional economic development, with both urban and rural based businesses benefitting equally from the online opportunity.
Rollout of vouchers continues nationwide and further details relating to the scheme can be found on my Department's website at www.dccae.gov.ie/tradingonlinevoucher and on the website of individual Local Enterprise Offices at www.localenterprise.ie.
