Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 October 2019
43. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the timeline for the commencement of works on the ground under the national broadband plan; the measures contained within same to ensure rapid roll-out of broadband services for rural areas, rural communities and regional towns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42304/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraI would like to ask the Minister, as I have on many occasions, the timeline for the commencement of works on the ground under the national broadband plan, and the measures contained within same to ensure rapid roll-out of broadband services for rural areas, rural communities and regional towns.
I thank the Deputy for raising the question. We did have some discussion of this earlier in the session. Essentially, the timeline for the national broadband plan is to complete all processes before the end of the year. As I outlined to Deputy Dooley, as part of that process we have had a new mapping exercise whereby anyone who wanted to provide a service on a commercial basis within the intervention area could put forward proposals. The closing date was extended by five weeks to 30 September and a significant number of applications and submissions were made. They are now being assessed within the Department. At the same time, I am proceeding with due diligence to complete the various elements of contract signing. The final piece will be combining those mapping assessments and submitting for state aid approval. Considerable work has also been done to deliver that. After the contract is signed, a deployment plan will be made available by the bidder immediately. In the first year of roll-out, the bidder will deploy approximately 300 broadband connection points across all counties. It is anticipated that between seven and 23 broadband connection points will be deployed in each county, each of which will provide a community-based high-speed broadband service, enhancing online participation and allowing for the establishment of digital work hubs in these locations. The full roll-out will take seven years to complete, passing 133,000 premises by the end of the second year and with between 70,000 and 100,000 premises passed each year thereafter.
I heard this before, with the timescale set out. I am glad to hear the Minister's response but seven years is a long time. I come from rural Ireland and I am asked daily by constituents when they will get broadband and when it will be rolled out. Businesses depend on broadband. People want to move back from Dublin and other cities into their own rural areas. They could do that if broadband was available. We have a colour coded map and people in areas marked amber are asking when they will have broadband. They need speed. Modern society needs this and we must get something up and running soon. It is hard for me to tell my constituents broadband may be available in certain areas seven years from now. That is too long to wait. We have been talking about rolling out rural broadband for years now and it is time to get it done. We have done a lot of scrutinising but it is still not happening. I take the Minister's assurance that it is going to happen but can it be fast-tracked?
I can understand the Deputy's concern that this has taken considerable time. The truth is that without the intervention we have proposed, the constituents the Deputy represents would never be reached. We know the commercial system would not deliver reliable high-speed, future-proofed broadband to almost a quarter of the country. That is the reason we have this scheme in place. Unlike the Deputy, some people have cast doubt on whether this is an important or necessary investment. I believe it is absolutely important. I cannot envisage any prosperous future for rural Ireland that did not have at its heart access to high-speed broadband. I am fully committed to delivering this as quickly as possible but I think the Deputy will understand that I also have to be careful to conduct due diligence to make sure that every i is dotted and every t is crossed to protect both the State and the future users of the service.
Imagine has said that it can service up to 45% of the national broadband map. The Taoiseach stated last week that Imagine's challenge to the Government's map had caused a delay in respect of the plans relating to broadband. If a national communications company is telling the Minister that it can service half of the map, can we not utilise that to speed up the delivery of services to rural Ireland? We need to start thinking outside the box in order to get this moving. Surely if there are fast-track pathways such as this, they should be explored. Broadband is not a luxury for schools, families, businesses or farmers. It is an absolute necessity. If it is not delivered soon, the benefits may be lost forever as investment will not flow to rural and regional areas. We will never open the boarded up shops, create jobs or sustain enterprise in our regional towns and villages if we do not have an equal platform of broadband service to compete with the larger cities. The current digital divide has completely undermined the economic viability of rural Ireland. SMEs are walking out of rural areas because they do not have reliable broadband services. They are going back to towns and we are at the loss of that. I ask the Minister to look at that as well.
Up to 30 September, any company had an opportunity to apply to extend the area and to commit to delivering high-speed broadband that would be future-proofed. Approximately 30 companies have made submissions which are now being evaluated. As I said to Deputy Dooley earlier, they have to be evaluated against the bar that was set in the broadband plan, which is 30 Mbps. They have to be future-proofed so that the service would not be diluted or diminished by more people coming on board. Another requirement is that companies be in a financial position to deliver the commitments they are making. There are criteria that have to be met by anyone who makes a submission to provide service in the intervention area. Those who have made submissions are being evaluated and that will form part of the completion of this process to evaluate those applications.
