Other Questions
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.
7. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will campaign for the strengthening and tightening of the cap on bio-fuels competing for land and crops with food production; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45030/13]
Amharc ar fhreagra41. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will include binding indirect land use change factors to ensure all climate impacts of bio-fuels are taken into account; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45029/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 148 together.
The 2009 renewable energy directive sets all member states a binding target that 10% of the energy used in the transport sector must come from renewable sources by 2020. The directive also requires that all bio-fuels used to meet the 10% target must comply with certain sustainability criteria. Specifically, they must not be made from feedstocks sourced from certain categories of land and must achieve certain greenhouse gas emissions reductions. This time last year, the EU Commission proposed a set of amendments to this directive and the fuel quality directive to mitigate the potential effects of indirect land use change occurring as a result of the use of certain bio-fuels. This sent a clear message to the market that second generation bio-fuels are preferable to land-based bio-fuels. One of the amendments proposed would limit the contribution that certain crop-based bio-fuels can make towards renewable energy targets for transport in EU member states.
The EU Commission considered that the scientific models used to quantify the indirect land use change emissions were insufficiently robust to incorporate binding indirect land use change factors in the sustainability criteria which would have precluded the use of bio-fuels with high direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. The Commission also considered that such an approach would require major industrial restructuring that would not be achievable within the 2020 timeframe. Therefore, the Commission proposal is that the requirement to incorporate greenhouse gas emissions factors for indirect land-use change is confined to the member states' reporting obligations with respect to emissions. The intention of this amendment is to introduce greater transparency and highlight the relative performances of different categories of bio-fuels in terms of their ability to reduce carbon emissions.
I share the concerns being expressed that bio-fuel production and its use, unless properly regulated, could impact negatively on food production and on food prices. I also acknowledge that those bio-fuels could also lead to increases in greenhouse gas emissions, which would be contrary to one of the objectives of the renewable energy directive. At the Energy Council meeting earlier this year, I conveyed the need for member states to be cognisant in the discussion of the proposed amendments of the potentially adverse impacts of bio-fuels on land use in developing countries. In this regard, Ireland has argued for a restriction on first generation bio-fuels and for incentives to encourage the development of advanced bio-fuels that do not affect food production. Ireland’s preference is for a cap that is as low as can be realistically achieved to mitigate the potential conflict between bio-fuel use in the EU and land use in the developing world, and the potential for higher greenhouse gas emissions from certain categories of bio-fuels.
I have listened to the Minister's reply. There is a great deal of concern and alarm that Ireland has not joined the group of EU member states that are committed to the 5% cap. The group includes countries like the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Twenty-seven EU Commissioners signed off on a cap of 5%. In March of this year, I had an exchange with the Minister of State, Deputy Costello, during which he said that Ireland is supporting the 5% cap. When the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, met representatives of non-governmental organisations to discuss this issue, he said they made a compelling case for not providing for a higher rate. He said he was conscious of the negative impact that a rate of more than 5% would have on some countries. It is as if the Minister of State with responsibility for trade and development is saying one thing and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is saying something else. During my exchange last March with the Minister of State, Deputy Costello, I asked him whether he had held discussions with the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte. He said he had spoken to the Minister about this matter the previous day. I do not think the Minister and the Minister of State can have been talking about bio-fuels on that occasion. The commitment to the 5% cap was born out of the Mary Robinson conference on climate justice and change, in which Ireland participated as the host country. A cap of 5%, rather than what was referred to in the Minister's reply, is being proposed at the moment as a compromise.
Either the Deputy is incorrect, or my advice and my direct knowledge is incorrect. This is the first I have heard about 27 Commissioners signing off on a 5% cap. I suggest it never happened. If it happened while I was president of the Council, nobody told me about it. Rather than agreeing to a 5% cap, some of the countries mentioned by the Deputy were quite opposed to the line I was pushing as president of the Council. It is not true that the European Parliament has approved a 5% cap. It has voted in favour of a 6% reduction. That is the cap it sought. The Lithuanian Presidency has made a compromise proposal that would involve a 7% cap, but it is being resisted. I think Ireland might support that, although we would prefer to see a lower ceiling. That is the latest position as I understand it.
The Minister of State, Deputy Costello, told me that Ireland is supporting the 5% cap. That is on the record of the Dáil. There is no doubt that Ireland is very generous with its foreign aid. We contribute 20% towards hunger eradication. What is the point of giving aid with one hand and taking it away with the other hand through our lack of commitment on the bio-fuels issue? Non-governmental organisations have been in contact with me today on this issue. I do not doubt that this matter will be followed up further. It is disappointing that one Department is saying one thing, but another Department is not joining up. The dots are not coming together in this regard.
No, I am afraid that is not the case at all. The Deputy is misinformed. After I met representatives of non-governmental organisations during the Irish Presidency, I undertook to submit their arguments into the debate in Europe. I have to inform the Deputy that when I did so, the arguments in question received a very cold reception from some states. If I thought that a blocking minority could be formed in the morning, I would support it. Far from the list the Deputy read out, there is not even a blocking minority, nor is there universal approval of the Lithuanian suggestion of a 7% ceiling.
In case I do not get to speak on this matter again, I wish to inform the House that the best and most recent advice I have from Brussels is that the indirect land use change issue, which is known in the lingo as the ILUC issue, is unlikely to proceed to finality in the lifetime of the present Commission or the present Parliament. I am particularly intrigued by the Deputy's assertion that 27 Commissioners signed off on a 5% ceiling. While I know she would not make such a statement unless she believed it to be true, I have to say it is news to me. If she has some evidence to support that statement, I would be glad to get it.
8. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will ensure the Environmental Protection Agency incorporates the evidence of people adversely impacted by hydraulic fracturing in other jurisdictions in its terms of reference for its proposed report on fracking. [44983/13]
Amharc ar fhreagra13. Deputy Michael Colreavy asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will arrange for an independent expert report on the economics of hydraulic fracturing as an input into the decision on whether to ban fracking. [44982/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe objective of the Environmental Protection Agency's research is to establish if shale gas exploration involving the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can be carried out in a manner that will not cause significant environmental pollution, to identify all possible environmental risks associated with fracking, to ascertain if these risks are manageable and to identify best practice with respect to environmental protection for the use of hydraulic fracturing technique for the exploration and extraction of shale gas. It is essential.
Everybody on both sides of the House would agree that everything must be considered. It can only happen, if it can ever happen, if it is deemed to be environmentally safe. It is vital that the full spectrum of potential environmental and human health issues is independently considered, and the results of scientific research must be published. That is the sole and only objective of this proposition from the EPA. It will be 2015 at least before we have those results, but when we do, we can have a full and proper debate based on all the facts in all jurisdictions where fracking is taking place.
We touched on this point earlier because we did not realise that the Leas-Cheann Comhairle would do such an effective job chairing this debate as to bring us to this point.
I am satisfied to hear what the Minister of State says but unfortunately he did not say "yes, I will". There are people in other jurisdictions who say their water has been damaged, there has been gas build-up in their houses, they are not happy with this thing and the gas companies are trying to buy their silence. They are jumping up and down, as it were, and saying fracking has damaged them. Will the Minister of State ask the EPA to ensure the views of such people are incorporated into the environmental impact study? If they are not, nobody in the report will have any credibility because those people will still jump up and down and shout loudly that they were damaged by hydraulic fracturing but no one ever asked them about it.
For the sake of absolute clarity, the EPA will study many different countries, as the Deputy knows, including two European countries, at least one in which there has been a ban on hydraulic fracturing. It will assimilate all the evidence available. There is no issue about establishing facts and this involves only facts, not hearsay or what one might see on a television programme. It is a study of science. That is what we are about.
Will the EPA talk to these people?
This process is completely open and transparent. It was open to anybody in this country to comment. The comments have been listened to. They have been taken on board. The study will be objective and scientific.
There is another side to this debate. It is very clear that in America, for instance, the economy has been transformed by shale gas. The benefit to each individual taxpayer or household in America is of the order of $1,500 per annum. That is what they are saving from the reduction in energy costs. That is a fact.
The environmental and health aspects must have primacy. We are committed to that on this side of the House. Let there be no doubt about that. I am happy this scientific analysis will take place, that it will be comprehensive, that it will consider all other jurisdictions and that every single citizen of this country, north, south, east or west, will have had a say. All submissions have been received and considered and we are about to go to the next stage in this process. It is a transparent, open process.
The evidence of people whose homes have been damaged is not hearsay, nor is it television drama. It may not be scientific data but it is not hearsay and the voices of those people deserve to be heard. If those voices are not heard and if they are smothered by a report that refers only to scientific data, it will find no acceptance in this State.
In response to the Minister of State's comment on the transformation of the economy of the United States, he should watch that space because I believe that fracking is a giant Ponzi scheme. The potential investors are onto it. They are trying to get their money out and the banks are pushing the companies to drill more and more in order that they can get their money back. It could be the next big busted flush.
The Minister of State says that people have had their say but the problem is that the train is moving to the next station. When residents see in counties such as Clare that licensing options have been put in to cover practically the whole county, it is understandable that they are very concerned. The Minister of State says the US economy has been transformed-----
It has.
-----but some of that short-term gain has been at the expense of long-term, seriously worrying health and environmental damage. I am concerned that the EPA might spend time on a project such as this when the Minister of State's Department ignores the potential to transform our economy through the development of wind and wave energy. The Minister of State does not give anything like the same amount of resources to those energy sources.
There is scientific information about toxic substances in the air, the soil, the water and damage to underground water tables, so I do not see why the Minister for State must undertake further studies. The information is available but the Minister of State is not listening to it.
A recent United Nations Environment Programme report outlined some of the dangers posed to human and non-human life by the chemicals used in the fracking process. It pointed out:
Fracturing fluid consists of large amounts of water mixed with chemicals and sand. In most countries the chemicals used in fracking fluid are considered trade secrets ... If companies are not required to publicly disclose the full list of chemicals used, assessing potential short- and long-term impacts on public health will be difficult.
We should also take on board that fracking is an extremely water-intensive practice. A single horizontal shale gas well will use up to 34 million litres of water, depending on the size of the area and the depth of the well. This excessive water usage can have drastic impacts on biodiversity and local ecosystems, while lowering the water table, resulting in reduced availability of water for use by local communities and agriculture.
With regard to the American economy taking off on access to cheap gas, I remind the Minister of State of the Cree Indian saying that not until the white man has cut down every tree and poisoned every river will he realise that we cannot eat money.
We cannot have our debate here without energy or electricity. We cannot drive our cars without petrol or diesel. Let us stay in the real world. The real world from the Government perspective is that there is an independent study. It is independent of Government and everybody else, taking on board everybody in the country who had an opinion. That has all been put into the mix and out of that will come a scientific study that I will stand over, whatever the outcome. The Department will not influence it. The report will be what the EPA finds. It will be published and will come before this House and will be fully debated in committee. Nothing is hidden here, and nothing is being ignored.
We have to live in the real world. We have to examine all of the facts, which will speak for themselves. I will support those facts, whatever they are, but I do not exclude the possibility that the science will say A, B, C, D or E. I do not know what it will say but we cannot reject the fact, as Deputy Daly did, that in Ireland we deal with our energy. We have the third highest wind energy output in the European Union. The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, and I spend an awful lot of our time on renewable energy, wind and wave energy and so on. Let us have a real, practical and honest debate on this. Reading statements that sound good but do not make sense is not the way we will do business in this House. We will deal in facts alone.
9. Deputy Joe McHugh asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the quality of mobile telephone reception and broadband connectivity here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45039/13]
Amharc ar fhreagra11. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the extent to which the telecommunications sector in this jurisdiction, including broadband, mobile telephony or satellite communications, has evolved to a sufficient degree to ensure the availability of state-of-the-art telecommunications throughout the country; the extent to which it has been found possible to augment this infrastructure in each of the past five years to date; if development within the sector has kept pace with that in competing economies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45164/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraConsiderable progress has been made in recent years in both the coverage of mobile telephone and broadband services across Ireland, with a multiplicity of commercial operators providing services over a diverse range of technology platforms.
ComReg advises that voice coverage is at 99% of the country. The Government has also undertaken a number of initiatives to bring broadband to those parts of the country where commercial operators have been unable to offer services. The combination of private investment and State interventions such as the national broadband scheme means that Ireland has met the European Commission's digital agenda for Europe's target of having a basic broadband service available to all areas by 2013.
The Government's national broadband plan, which I published in August 2012, aims to radically change the broadband landscape in Ireland by ensuring that high speed broadband is available to all citizens and businesses. This will be achieved by providing a policy and regulatory framework that assists in accelerating and incentivising commercial investment and a State-led investment for areas where it is not commercial for the market to invest.
In order to progress the State-led investment for areas where it is not commercial for the market to invest, a full procurement process must be designed and EU state aids approval must be obtained. My Department is engaged in a comprehensive mapping exercise of the current and anticipated investment by the commercial sector to identify where the market is expected to deliver high-speed broadband services over the coming years. The results of this mapping exercise will inform the precise areas that need to be targeted in the State-led investment as envisaged in the national broadband plan. Intensive technical, financial and legal preparations, including stakeholder engagement, are ongoing. The procurement process for the approved intervention will be carried out in accordance with EU and Irish procurement rules. Since the publication of the plan, investments by the commercial sector are underway in both fixed line and wireless high speed broadband services, particularly in urban and semi-urban areas. There is evidence that industry is investing beyond the targets to which it committed in the plan.
I will set out some of the key developments in the short and medium term. The e-fibre investment programme is a further very positive development in the Irish telecommunications market. Eircom launched its next generation broadband services in May last with speeds of up to 70 megabits per second, Mbps, immediately available to over 300,000 premises. By the end of this year, Eircom aims to reach more than 600,000 homes and businesses. It has a target to pass 1.2 million premises by June 2015. Full details of its roll-out plans are available on Eircom's website in a user-friendly on-line map. Last week, the company announced the launch of its new television service which is linked to its e-fibre investment programme. This is a further very positive development in the Irish telecommunications market.
UPC is continuing with its investment in the cable network and recently boosted its entry level package from 50 Mbps per second to 120 Mbps and its top speed to 200 Mbps. This increase will be immediately available to some 656,000 households in the areas covered by UPC's network. Other fixed operators also continue to invest in local loop unbundling. BT Ireland now supplies broadband access to both Vodafone and Sky Ireland and along with other operators is also investing in fixed infrastructure. Meteor and Vodafone have announced the launch of 4G services and the other mobile service providers are planning similar roll outs in the coming months. Some of this investment will also involve significant improvement to current 3G coverage throughout the country.
Deputies will also be aware that the ESB is currently considering the prospect of utilising its distribution network to roll out fibre broadband services. I am, therefore, confident that with the continued significant private sector investment combined with the planned targeted State intervention, we will achieve our ambition of ensuring the ubiquitous availability of modern, resilient high-speed broadband services to all parts of the country in the next few years.
I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply and for outlining the provisions and objectives he has read out. I am sure he, I and everybody else in this House has had experiences in various parts of the country where one moves around the house or upstairs and sometimes out into the backyard or up the road to get an adequate mobile telephone service. This is not happening in other countries nor should it be. I realise fully that the kind of investment that is required should have been undertaken about ten or 15 years ago when this country was overflowing with money but it did not happen. I know the Minister knows that as well.
Arising from what the Minister has just said, has any particular deficiency been identified which could be remedied in the shortest possible time, be it in fibre optics, wired, wireless or satellite, which would have the effect of improving the quality of service in respect of broadband and mobile telephony? Of all the complaints I get from time to time from the business sector and those trying to set up small businesses in their homes, the lack of adequate broadband or mobile telephone services is one that comes up again and again. I was told recently that one could boil the kettle while waiting for the broadband service to come on stream. That is not a criticism of the Minister.
Deputy Durkan is correct about the lack of uniformity of the service throughout the country. Unfortunately, that lack of uniformity is in every country with a rural population. We have the least densely populous rural demographics in the EU. That is not an excuse for creating a new digital divide in the country. We must do our utmost so that even where it is not commercial for the private operators to provide the service for which Deputy Durkan is arguing, the State will intervene. I accept that.
In respect of the short-term improvements sought by Deputy Durkan, be they fibre optic, wireless or satellite, they are proceeding apace at a faster rate than would have been anticipated even by the regulator. Unfortunately, it does not deal with Deputy Durkan's problem of the black spot where it is deficient regardless of whether it is mobile telephony or broadband. It is deficient. Previous investment by the State, for example, in the national broadband scheme or the metropolitan area networks around some 93 towns has certainly brought about a significant improvement but we are back to the requisite of State intervention to deal with the issue comprehensively.
In conclusion, I will give Deputy Durkan one example of the range of things I mentioned in my formal reply. This is the project envisaged by the ESB in respect of the use of its distribution system to roll out fibre to parts of Ireland that could not otherwise reasonably expect to have such a service delivered to them. The ESB has progressed it to the stage of having held its competition and now has a preferred bidder. In other words, it will open a joint venture with a leading telecommunications company to provide this service to parts of rural Ireland using the distribution system. As far as I know, this has only been done in Chattanooga in Tennessee. Due to the fact that we have an especially firm infrastructure and a temperate climate, the distribution system is capable of giving this service. It would be unheard of in the US or indeed in Europe for a fibre service to be provided in the fashion envisaged by the ESB. It is just one example and one that deserves the support of the House.
