Vol. 573 No. 3
406 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, further to Parliamentary Question No. 125 of 16 October 2003, the proposals he has for the construction of further fibre optic networks in the Waterford constituency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25159/03]
Following the report of the interdepartmental working group on telecommunications in March 2002, the Government gave the go-ahead for the construction of 19 metropolitan area networks, MANs, including those in Waterford city and Dungarvan. In the National Spatial Strategy for Ireland 2002 – 2020, Waterford is nominated as a regional gateway and Dungarvan is identified as a major town.
The MANs programme, phase 1 of the regional broadband programme, is being supported by €64 million in Government and EU funding. The networks are expected to begin coming on stream in mid-2004. Subsequent phases of the programme will be contingent on the success of this phase.
In addition to the MANs programme my Department has signed grant agreements with a number of private sector companies, including Eircom and Esat BT, whose continuing roll-out of DSL has made broadband services available to customers in a number of locations in County Waterford, and ESB Telecomms, whose new national fibre optic grid covers 1,500 kilometres over 21 counties, including Waterford.
