Every house in the country will have access to high-speed broadband by the end of the decade, the Government has said.

It will invest between €300m and €500m in building the infrastructure, which will deliver “at least 30 megabits” of fibre-powered broadband to some 700,000 premises which could not be reached by commercial operators.

The latest plan for widespread rural broadband in Ireland was launched by Communications Minister Alex White on Monday.

Minister White is the fifth such Minister in the portfolio to promise a national broadband scheme, but he rejects any criticism that the latest announcement is just a launch.

Former Minister Eamon Ryan was the first Minister to announce a national broadband scheme back in 2008.

“We don’t want to be here again in eight years’ time,” said Minister White. “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,” he added.

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

At present, just 36% of Roscommon and 40% of Mayo and Leitrim are able to get broadband from a private operator. This compares with 99% of Dublin and 77% of Kildare.

The national average coverage for broadband from an existing provider is 68%.

There has been a cautious welcome from farm organisations and rural groups. Director of organisation with the IFA, James Kelly, urged the Government to roll out the broadband scheme as quickly as possible to help rural business.

“Connected farmers are registering animal births and movements, accessing real-time price updates, taking care of banking and business tasks remotely. Wide access to fast, guaranteed broadband will mean all farms and rural businesses will be able to make use of digital advances,” Kelly said.

ICSA Rural Development chairman Billy Gray says that the Government’s plan for the rollout of high-speed broadband is moving too slowly.

Willie O’Donoghue from the ICMSA said that the plan was a necessary recognition of the new reality, which had high-speed broadband as equal with water and roads in terms of infrastructural significance.

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.

Then 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 intervention by the State’s rural broadband plan, or if a private operator will be able to offer a service.