Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 October 2013
6. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the progress made to date on the national digital strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44970/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraI launched the first phase of the Government's national digital strategy in July this year. The aim of the strategy is to significantly increase the levels of digital adoption in Ireland. It sets out key objectives across three different strands, namely, trading online and entrepreneurship; citizen engagement, and education and e-learning.
My Department has worked closely with stakeholders to develop the administrative arrangements for the trading online voucher scheme. This will commence with a two phase pilot project, the first phase of which gets under way this week with a call for applications in Dublin through the Dublin City Enterprise Board. A second phase of the pilot will be progressed in early 2014 and will be followed by a national roll-out with the objective of getting 2,000 small and micro-businesses trading online within 24 months.
The strategy also aims to encourage digital entrepreneurship. Earlier this year I renewed the contract with the National Digital Research Centre to provide ongoing support for the translation of digital research into commercial propositions. Results from NDRC's work to date have been promising with follow on private sector investment being secured for a number of the projects which it is supporting. My Department also continues to support the Digital Hub Development Agency. There are currently 72 digital companies operating from the Digital Hub, employing approximately 880 people.
Strand two of the strategy focuses on citizen engagement. Our target is to cut the number of people not using the Internet in half by the end of 2016. This will entail awareness raising, a focus on skills development and basic training. With €1.4 million funding support from my Department, and in partnership with stakeholders, I launched a new national digital literacy training programme earlier this year. The BenefIT 4 programme has already provided training for almost 3,000 people and is operating in over 550 locations nationwide. My Department has also developed an online mapping resource to make it easier to find the nearest BenefIT training location.
The third strand of the strategy relates to e-learning.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
A series of technology "Switch On" workshops will be held in schools to showcase the best use of technology in the classroom. This programme builds on the 100 Mbps to second level schools project in which my Department and the Department of Education and Skills are investing in high speed symmetrical broadband capacity for every second level school in the country. The second phase of the schools broadband programme is currently being implemented and I expect that all schools will be connected by the end of next year. We are already learning from the very positive experiences in schools that already have 100 Mbps connectivity and will use the "Switch On" workshops to share these experiences with other schools. We have also asked the ESRI to undertake research on educational outcomes as a consequence of using high speed connectivity in the classroom.
The digital divide that is developing in this country affects people from a lower socio-economic background and the elderly, in particular in rural areas. Perhaps the Minister would comment on that. When will the roll-out of broadband to all rural areas - the 30 megabits per second - be completed? Will the Minister commit fully to it? Broadband is like electricity in the 1950s. We need to ensure every part of this country is brought along.
I agree with Deputy Moynihan that we ought not to allow a new divide to arise in the country - this time a digital divide - between parts of the rural population and urban Ireland in terms of the services available there. The basic training programme to which I referred is an attempt, in part, to address that but Deputy Moynihan raises the more fundamental question about the availability of broadband in rural communities. The problem is that we have the least densely populated rural areas in Europe. In common with other rural parts of Europe, the roll-out of broadband to these areas is immensely expensive.
In regard to where we are with the plan, the Deputy will understand that because the State must intervene, we must go through state aid procedures in terms of getting approval in Europe for State intervention.
Every day, the commercial sector is improving the service that is available in large tracts of urban Ireland. Deputy Moynihan is correct when he says that the service is entirely inadequate in parts of rural Ireland. I accept that. We have started the mapping exercise with the suppliers. The EU requires us to present a detailed and supported application for state aid approval to roll out this facility to rural Ireland. I hope - the Deputy should not hold me to this - we will have finished the mapping exercise and made the submission by the end of the year. We are trying to do that with as much despatch as we can.
If Deputy Moynihan is happy, we will move on to Question No. 7.
I thought we were due to finish at this stage.
Extra time has been given.
I am confused.
There is extra time now.
What time are we continuing until?
We started at 5 o'clock. Question Time lasts an hour and 15 minutes, which will bring us up to 6.15 p.m.
I did not know that.
We thought we were going.
You are lucky we had not gone, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
