I propose to take Questions Nos. 984 and 985 together.
The report to which the Deputy refers has quite a broad focus and one of the areas it discusses is the State led intervention under the Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP). As the Deputy will be aware, the NBP is being achieved via a mix of commercial investment by the telecommunications sector and a State led intervention in those areas where commercial providers acting alone will not provide this essential service.
In relation to the NBP, I note that the report recommends that the Local Authorities, for whom the report was commissioned, "should fully embrace what is a remarkable plan". Representatives from ICBAN have requested a meeting with my Department to discuss the report and I am happy to confirm to the Deputy that a meeting is being arranged.
The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) will ensure high speed broadband access (minimum download 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecommunications sector so that to date approximately 1.5m or 65% of the 2.3m premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband and this footprint is expanding. By 2020 it is expected that 90% of premises in Ireland will have access to high speed broadband.
The Government is determined to ensure that the network is built out as quickly as possible and at a minimum cost. As part of the competitive process in awarding a contract(s) under the State led Intervention, my Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best roll-out strategy, in order to target areas of particularly poor service, business needs and/or high demand. This will need to be balanced with the most efficient network roll-out plan. A prioritisation programme will support this process, in consultation with the Minister for Rural and Community Development.
In addition, the Department of Rural and Community Development has established two Regional Action Groups, working with all Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Offices and other relevant agencies. It has also provided funding to support each Local Authority to appoint a Broadband Officer. The Regional Action Groups will help accelerate the broadband network build in rural Ireland, once a contract(s) has been awarded, by ensuring that there are no local barriers to deployment and by identifying priority areas for roll-out. The 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
In April of this year, I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map, searchable by eircode. The map is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The map shows the areas targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).
The map shows that there are over 101,200 premises in County Donegal, about 68,000 of which fall within a BLUE area of the Map and will be covered by commercial operators. Just over 16,500 of these 68,000 premises form part of eir's planned rural deployment to deliver rural high speed broadband between now and the end of 2018. . Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at http://fibrerollout.ie/eircode-lookup/ The remaining 33,000 premises in County Donegal fall within an AMBER area and will be part of the State led Intervention under the National Broadband Plan.
The procurement process for the State led Intervention comprising some 540,000 premises and represented as AMBER on my Department’s High Speed Broadband Map is progressing. My Department is currently evaluating the "Detailed Solutions" submitted by two bidders in September. This is the last stage in the procurement process before seeking final tenders and progression to the appointment of a preferred bidder(s).
