merrion street

-stresses need to accelerate roll out of Broadband across Europe

-cautions that "state aids clearance ought not delay essential investment"

Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte TD today outline the priorities for the Irish EU Presidency in terms of Telecommunications and the Digital Agenda.

Opening a European Ecommerce Conference Minister Rabbitte, who will take over the chair of the EU Telecoms Council on 1 January, said "We intend to promote the digital economy and the Digital Single Market by making progress on issues spanning a number of Councils, including Intellectual Property rights, Cyber security, e-Identification, data protection and, very importantly, the costs associated with the roll-out of high speed broadband.

Minister Rabbitte confirmed that Ireland will work to ensure progress on the proposed Directive on reducing high-speed broadband roll-out costs.

"By far the biggest element of cost associated with deploying high-speed broadband is in the area of construction and civil engineering . This is why we will prioritise efforts to reduce these costs where possible and to leverage existing infrastructure to achieve much more expeditious and cost-effective deployment.

The Minister also drew attention to the need for all actors playing their part in accelerating investment – including the EU Commission itself saying "I would like to stress the importance of swift decision making by the Commission’s Services on State Aids applications made by Member States. Where a national government concludes that such investments are necessary in order to boost competitiveness in critical sectors such as broadband, clearance at EU level within the shortest possible time frame will speed our path towards growth and recovery.

A copy of the full text of the Ministers remarks can be accessed

Here