Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 May 2012
132 Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a list of schools that are currently waiting for the upgrading to the school broadband service; and the percentage of the amount paid on wages to those persons employed to upgrade the school broadband scheme. [22540/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Schools Broadband Programme services are secured by my Department on behalf of schools through a public tendering process. All schools wishing to avail of broadband under the Programme are currently in receipt of the best available connections within resources. As the Deputy will be aware, broadband capacity can vary due to geographical location. However, since the commencement of the Schools Broadband Programme there has been a significant increase in bandwidth capacity. This is due to improved bandwidth speeds being made available to schools and the substantial reduction in the number of schools who are connected via satellite. Schools are only offered satellite connections where no alternative was offered during the procurement process.
The schools Broadband Programme has been re-tendered and an evaluation of responses is currently taking place. New contracts for the supply of services will be awarded shortly. It is expected that under the new contracts there will be further increases in the overall availability of bandwidth provided to schools within the current budget.
In 2011 €3m was paid to internet service providers. Information regarding the element of the broadband contracts which relates to providers' wage costs is not available. In addition to the current broadband scheme, the Government has approved the roll out of 100Mbit/s broadband to all post primary schools. This is a joint initiative between this Department and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. The national roll-out will be completed over three stages with 203 schools being connected by September 2012, a further 200 being connected next year and the remaining 250 schools being connected in 2014.
Under the agreed arrangements, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources will provide the capital investment and current costs for each school for the year of installation and also for the first calendar year. My Department will pay the current costs for connectivity thereafter which is estimated at €8.1m. For this year, this Department will pay €1.2m which is the current costs for the 78 schools that were in the pilot project and this amount is included in the 2012 Estimate for my Department.
