Vol. 510 No. 1
33 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the areas in respect of which no proposals for projects supporting the development of advanced telecommunications networks and services to be co-funded by the European Union have been received; and the steps, if any, she will take to ensure that these areas in respect of which no commercial interest in providing services was expressed will not lose out in terms of regional development. [17292/99]
The Deputy will be aware that the provision of advanced telecommunications infrastructure is primarily a matter for operators in the newly liberalised telecommunications market.
Recognising that in certain regions of the country competition alone will not provide the required advanced telecommunications infrastructural investment, I engaged a consortium of consultants led by Norcontel (Ireland) Limited to manage three calls for projects supporting the development of advanced telecommunications networks and services which might be co-funded by INTERREG and European Regional Development Fund European Union funding.
The nine successful projects from the first and second calls were announced on 5 July 1999, details of which are set out in the following tabular statement. These entail 23 million euros of EU moneys leveraging a further 32 million euros of private sector investment. This investment will result in the provision of advanced telecommunications infrastructure to over 120 towns in 21 counties around the country.
The third call for proposals closed on 16 August 1999 and four projects seeking 3.6 million euros of EU co-funding have been approved subject to contract. It is intended to announce the result of this call shortly. All of these projects are to be completed by 31 December 2000.
No proposals were received for certain parts of the Border, midlands, mid east and south east regions. My Department is currently reviewing advanced telecommunications investment needs in the context of the next national development plan. The needs of all regions of the country will be considered in this review, especially those for which proposals did not emerge in previous rounds.
|
Organisation |
Project Description |
ProjectCostMEuros |
EIOPFundingMEuros |
|
Cablelink |
Deployment of fibre optic cable to provide a SDH Ring to link the Cablelink headend at Terenure with a node at Belgard Road for SME's in the Tallaght area. |
2.2 |
1.0 |
|
CableManagementIreland |
Design and construction of hybrid fibre coaxial infrastructure in Castlebar |
1.7 |
0.8 |
|
Eircom |
Installation of a 95 km high capacity fibre optic cable along the west coast of Donegal, from Bunbeg to Donegal town and from Dunfanaghy to Falcarragh serving all communities (up to 71,000 people) along the route.In addition, Eircom propose to provide 0.3M euros from its own resources to help establish two Technology Information Communication Centres (TICCs) in Donegal which will provide IT and telecommunications services to local communities and businesses and also raise awareness. The TICCs will develop cross-Border links with a number of similar STAR centres in Northern Ireland. |
4.7 |
2.4 |
|
Eircom |
Development of a high capacity fibre optic infrastructure along the West coast from Sligo to West Cork.Eircom state that the percentage of rural customers with access to the national broadband network in the region will increase from 50% to 70% as a result of this project. |
13.4 |
5.7 |
|
Esat Telecom |
Installation of fibre optic cable in Cork, Galway, Dundalk, Thurles, Carlow, Tralee, Athlone, Sligo, Maynooth, Letterkenny and Limerick |
4.2 |
1.9 |
|
Esat Telecom |
Extension of Esat national fibre optic network to Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo encompassing the towns of Athlone, Ballina, Claremorris, Roscommon, Castlerea, Ballyhaunis, Sligo and Collooney. |
5.0 |
2.1 |
|
HEAnet |
HEAnet is a not-for-profit organisation delivering managed broadband services to over 30 education/research institutions throughout the State.HEAnet proposes to redesign and upgrade it's network infrastructure, to provide an all-Ireland architecture, on a par with other EU countries. |
2.2 |
1.0 |
|
Ocean |
Construction of a high capacity fibre optic digital corridor linking Dublin, Athlone, Galway and Shannon and 30 other locations along the route. |
17.5 |
6.0 |
|
Suir Nore Relays |
Hybrid Fibre Co-axial cable upgrades and Digital MMDS upgrades in Clonmel and Kilkenny. |
4.4 |
2.0 |
|
Total |
55.3 |
22.9 |
