Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alex White launched the latest rollout of a broadband plan in Doonbeg, Clare which could cost in excess of €500m. The Government is seeking “various options” regarding funding with the European Investment Bank being one option to help fund the rollout.

Speaking at a briefing last Friday afternoon, Minister White said the new scheme is only for areas where a private broadband provider cannot reach already. The Minister said that each of the 2.3m homes in the 50,000 townlands in Ireland will now have “at least 30MG” of broadband.

Minister White is now the fifth Communications Minister to have rolled out a national broadband scheme but rejects any criticism that the latest announcement is just a launch. Former Minister Eamon Ryan was the first Minister to announce a national broadband back in 2008.

“We don’t want to be here again in eight years’ time,” Minister White said. “We want this to be a definitive plan, we don’t want to be sitting around a table again… the time for talking is over,” the Minister added.

In terms of cost to the consumer, Minister White refused to give specifics would confirmed that any price would be “affordable” to the consumer.

A public consultation process is open until February to allow the general public to give feedback on the plans. After that the Government intends on having a definitive plan on how it wants the network to look like, after that a tender will be issued looking for suppliers to build the network with the hope that construction will begin in 2016. Minister White then expects the rollout to take between “three to five years” to complete.

Minister White launched a website www.broadband.gov.ie where people can check to see if their townland, parish, village or town is available for the national broadband plan.

A more detailed report on the plans will be in this week’s Irish Farmers Journal.