Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 June 2004
6 Mr. O’Dowd asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he has satisfied himself with the level of uptake of DSL broadband connections in the past six months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19303/04]
Amharc ar fhreagra72 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources his plans to introduce broadband into all schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19287/04]
Amharc ar fhreagra259 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the full extent of requirements in respect of infrastructural investment in telecommunications; the extent to which this requirement is being met at present or is planned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19569/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 72 and 259 together.
The provision of telecommunications services, including broadband, is a matter in the first instance for the private sector companies operating in a fully liberalised market under the regulation of ComReg. In its report, Ireland's Broadband Future, published in December 2003, the Information Society Commission concluded that the market has failed to respond to the demand for broadband connectivity and that there is a proven need for Government intervention to accelerate the provision of infrastructure and the driving of demand.
In December last I announced my Department's broadband action plan, to which I referred earlier. It will result in broadband connectivity being rolled out to 90 towns with a population of 1,500 and over, using community broadband exchanges and strategic fibre. A spend of €35 million each year from now until 2007 has been committed to the broadband action plan.
I also referred to the group broadband scheme which I launched last March and which will allow smaller communities to pool their requirements and obtain broadband connectivity from a range of service providers.
The regional connectivity agreements my Department negotiated with Esat BT and the ESB at prices as low as one eighth of what they had been, mean all areas of the country will benefit from a low-cost backhaul.
The broadband for schools programme will bring connectivity to all 4,100 primary, second level and special needs schools. I am also aware of recent initiatives in the private sector in this respect. As a result of the £77 million investment by the Government in 1999 with Global Crossing, Ireland now heads the OECD league in international connectivity to more than 50 cities in Europe, America and the Far East. The significant reduction in voice and data communications costs to and from Ireland and the allied construction of world class data centres have been instrumental in attracting a number of major companies in the information and communications technology sector to locate their European operations in Ireland.
Internet penetration rates in Ireland are increasing more quickly than in any other European country. In the past 12 months the number of DSL customers has risen from 1,000 to 45,000, with a further 60,000 customers using flat rate Internet access and more than 1,000 using high speed corporate lines. These figures continue to increase dramatically, with upwards of 1,000 new customers being added each week, particularly as a result of the free offers for the summer period by the main service providers. The recent free trial introductory offers announced by Eircom and Esat BT and the entry of NTL into the broadband market are a welcome indication of the increasing interest in broadband as a result of lower prices and greater consumer choice.
Full details of my Department's broadband programmes can be found on the websites, www.dcmnr.gov.ie and www.gbs.ie. My Department will continue to promote the broadband agenda with the aim of providing world class broadband infrastructure in all areas of the country. The continuing aim of the Government is to place Ireland in the top 10% of OECD countries for broadband connectivity within three years.
Is the Minister concerned that Ireland is losing its position at the leading edge of information communication technologies compared with ten or 12 years ago? Will the investment proposed by the Minister return Ireland to the leading edge?
Other European countries have experienced a dramatic uptake in broadband over a relatively short period of two to three years, and that is also being experienced in Ireland. I am convinced that, as a result of the Government's investment in strategic initiatives aimed at introducing broadband in schools, major towns and villages and peripheral areas through the group broadband scheme, Ireland will have a complete, open access, technology neutral infrastructure which will avail of various technologies to ensure broadband penetration into areas that could not be accessed previously.
In addition, the Government reached agreement with the ESB to spend €60 million on backhaul. The ESB wrapped fibre around high tension electricity cables, which has allowed independent operators to piggyback the infrastructure at keen prices — one eighth of what they had been — as a result of an agreement between the Department, the ESB and Esat BT. There was a problem within Ireland, which was not related to connectivity from the island to other countries, as a result of the Global Crossing investment. Earlier I signed a formal contract with E-Net, which will manage all the metropolitan networks. I assure the Deputy that this will ensure Ireland will be at the leading edge of broadband technology.
With regard to supplementary questions, the questioner has one minute and the Minister has one minute to reply.
Will the Minister expand on his interesting announcement regarding the E-Net contract? What are its terms and conditions? How will it operate in the coming years?
The Minister stated a number of months ago that the aim was that broadband connectivity would meet the average EU standard by mid-2005. How many homes and businesses will be connected by then? What is his target for mid-2005?
We want to be in the top 10% of OECD countries within three years. As for the announcement today, the management services entity will manage and operate the completed MANs — the existing MANs — and any new MANs that will be added on. It is basically a services concession contract where the appointee will be expected to offer a service concession fee to the State in the form of a fixed payment and revenue sharing arrangements. It will, in effect, offer very keen rates, dark fibre which will give us the highest of high speeds. Many of the definitions of broadband one sees in documents from the OECD and the EU Commission are not broadband at all but are DSL, which is an introductory broadband facility. What we are putting into the ground in most areas is dark fibre, which will give these areas incredible Internet speed.
Who are eNET?
If the Deputy has other queries he should put down a separate question and I can give him the information.
The Minister mentioned group broadband schemes. Will those be like the group water schemes? Will we be back here in years to come talking about the group broadband schemes that are to go across the country?
Question No. 259 refers to the availability of broadband in schools across the country. I asked the Minister a similar question a year ago and he was unable to answer. What percentage of schools have broadband, either through the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources or the Department of Education and Science?
On DSL broadband, when one is switching over from analog to DSL, the waiting time is up to three months in certain areas. I have a friend in Monkstown and DSL broadband is not available in that area.
I doubt that very much. If they are not able to get it through the wires in the ground they could get it through satellite or wireless, which is as keenly priced as the fixed wire system. ComReg has issued a substantial number of wireless licences which cover the entire country and I do not doubt that a place like Monkstown is facilitated. I invite the Deputy to look up our "vote for broadband" website, which I referred to earlier. People can log on and say they want broadband in their area and we then provide the service providers, who have licences or infrastructure in those areas, with a list of those people. It is a trigger mechanism which has worked very successfully abroad.
The Deputy's other question related to schools. I do not know the proportion but broadband is available to many schools if they require it and many schools in urban areas are DSL-enabled if required. What we are doing with broadband for schools is providing a high-speed broadband Internet access in all schools through a number of technologies at no cost. This is due to the deal we arranged with the industry, where it pays 80% of the cost.
Why has the Minister ignored the recommendations of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources investigation into broadband — that we should have a co-operative approach, where the MANs are built using a combination of existing fibre from telcos and also, possibly, fibre provided by the Department? In such circumstances, is the Minister worried that without that co-operative approach there may be a falling back from investment by the private telco operators, given the extensive development of MANs which is not using their existing fibre?
Given 45,000 DSL broadband connections have been made so far and 1,000 more are being made per week, that means approximately 70,000 connections by the end of the year whereas the projection from the companies at the start of this year was a target of 100,000 by the end of the year. Is that not a failure in terms of what we were looking for?
I refer to gaps in digital literacy in the State and the effect it can have. If one looks at the figures, one will see that 51% of people from a professional background have access to computers and the Internet while the figure is 9% among labourers. This gap is costing people not only jobs——
A brief question please.
How many applications for funding has the Department received from small communities for self-enabling development of broadband projects where commercial providers are not available?
I do not have the figures on that but the Deputy can log on to my Department's website or to the link for the group broadband scheme which will show what is available. I launched this scheme quite recently and there has been significant interest but I suggest to Deputies here and elsewhere that they should encourage their constituents to use this scheme because grants of up to 55% are available in the Border, midland and west region and a lower figure in the south and east to provide broadband in the peripheral regions.
Will Deputy Eamon Ryan remind me of the point he made?
The Minister is not following the recommendation of the Oireachtas committee——
It is possible for all the companies on a completely open access basis to get into the fibre the State is putting in the ground. No one is excluded from it.
Why are we duplicating?
The Deputy should allow the Minister to speak.
We are not duplicating. That is the song of the private operators which did not want the State providing high speed broadband to the regions——
Can the Minister tell me there is no duplication?
I ask Deputy Eamon Ryan to allow the Minister to speak without interruption.
Deputy Eamon Ryan is only parroting what they are saying. It was only after the State put fibre, which is far faster than the existing network, into the 19 towns that the private companies followed providing DSL. They went into 17 of the areas we chose. The only two areas they did not choose were Manorhamilton and Gweedore. I rest my case.
They also had fibre in the ground.
