Penrose wants maximum broadband for rural areas

Deputy Willie Penrose has contacted the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte TD requesting him to ensure that broadband is provided across all of the rural areas of Westmeath."I gave as an example my own areas in Ballynacargy, Sonna, Milltown and Empor, and the importance of ensuring that the populations of these areas have access to broadband," said Deputy Penrose."And I emphasised that pivotal role of broadband in affording opportunities for people who have entrepreneurial ideas to develop same, and to encourage and foster employment generating opportunities, which focus on telecottaging type industries. It is also important for students, and others who need to avail of a diverse range of technology platforms.The Labour deputy said that Minister Rabbitte indicated that prior to rolling out the national Broadband Scheme (NBS), the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources did a detailed mapping exercise to establish which parts of the country would be eligible for inclusion in the scheme, by virtue of the extent of existing broadband coverage.In relation to Ballynacargy, it was established that it was already covered by a number of broadband service providers (Ice Hitech, Lastmile, 3 and Digiweb), and therefore could not be included in the National Broadband Scheme."He also stated that his department received a number of individual applications from residents in the general Ballynacargy area under the on-going Rural Broadband Scheme (RBS) and at present, the records show that some 20 premises secured a connection from one or other of the commercial operators taking part in the scheme," said Deputy Penrose.He said that Minister Rabbitte's reply to him also stated the following:'I have recently published a National Broadband Plan. This aims to radically change the broadband landscape in Ireland, by ensuring that high speed services of at least 30MBPS are available to all our citizens and businesses, well in advance of the EU's target date of 2020, and that significantly higher speeds are available to as many homes and businesses as possible.'My department has commenced preparatory work to expedite the completion of a formal mapping exercise to determine the exact position in relation to commercial service providers existing and planned broadband services throughout the country. This mapping exercise will identify the areas of the country where there is a market failure in the provision of high speed broadband services.'It will also identify where the market is expected to succeed and fail in the delivery of high speed broadband over the coming years. Until that process is complete, the precise areas of the country which will require state intervention will not be known. I would reiterate however, that the government remains committed to the delivery of the speeds referred to in the National Broadband Plan, so as to ensure that all parts of Ireland, including such areas as Ballynacargy and Milltown, will achieve at least 30MBPS connectivity.'